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EDITED BY 

FREDERICK H. SYKES, Ph.D. 

TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 
MACBETH 



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THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 



THE TRAGEDY OF 

MACBETH 



EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
BY 

FREDERICK HENRY SYKES, Ph.D. 

TEACHERS COLLEGE 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, AND DIRECTOR OF EXTENSION 

TEACHING, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

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PREFATORY NOTE 

THHE collected edition of Shakespeare's plays issued in 1623 
^ and known as Folio^ is the first edition and prime authority 
for the text of Macbeth. Of the later Folios, printed in 1632, 
1663, 1685, Folio^ prints many careless blunders, and is followed 
in most of these blunders by Folio^ and Folio^ Macbeth is not 
accurately printed even in Folio^; the Clarendon editors sur- 
mise that it was printed from a transcript of the author's MS. 
dictated to the transcriber, for the blunders are of the ear, not of 
the eye. Folio^ and especially Folio^ correct a few of these 
errors, but between them introduce nearly a hundred blunders 
of their own. The present text is based, therefore, on the text 
of Folio^ but it incorporates the accepted corrections of Shake- 
speare editors, and presents the text modernized in spelling and 
punctuation. 

Macbeth is especially suited for study of the drama as a form 
of literature, because of its simplicity of motive, the inevitable 
progress of its stirring scenes, its vivid characterization, and its 
superb technique. Following the plan of the edition of Julius 
CcBsar in the present series of English Classics, the editor 
offers an interpretation that is intended to elucidate not only 
the meaning of the text, but the meaning of the play as a play 
— as a definite literary form. 

The element of witchcraft in Macbeth gets a peculiar light 
from the tremendous interest in the practice of witchcraft during 
the period of Elizabeth and James I. The present editor has 
sought out much of the witchcraft literature contemporary 
with the play, and preserved in the Bodleian Library, to present 
Shakespeare's point of view — as reflecting a time when to most 
people witchcraft was a devilish reality. 

In the preparation of material for annotations the editor has 
had the aid of Miss Lizette Andrews Fisher, to whom his 
thanks are here gratefully recorded. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 

"Macbeth and the Witches/' By Jean Baptistb 
CoROT. In the Wallace Collection, London. 

PREFATORY NOTE v 

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY ix 

INTRODUCTION xi 

TEXT OF "THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH'' ... 3 
NOTES TO "MACBETH''. .......... 91 

MAP: The Scotland of Macbeth 182 

APPENDIXES : 

I. The Story of Macbeth in Holinshed's 

"Chronicles" 183 

II. Shakespeare's Works Chronologically Ar- 
ranged 201 

INDEX 203 



BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Shakespeare ^s Life: 

Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchardson. Outlines of the Life 

of Shakespeare. 
Brandes, William. William Shakespeare. 
Lee, Sidney. A Life of William Shakespeare. 
Raleigh, Walter. Shakespeare. (*' English Men of Letters" 

series.) 

Text: 

Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories , & Tragedies. Folio\ 1623; 

Folio^, 1632; Folio^, 1664; Folio^ 1685. 
Folio^ contains "The Tragedie of Macbeth," on pp. 131-151, and 
is the first edition and ultimate authority for the text. 

The Plays of William Shakespeare. Edited by Edmond 

Malone. 10 vols. 1790. 
Contains the notes of earlier editors — Rowe, Theobald, Hanmer, War- 
burton, Farmer, Johnson, Steevens. A revised edition was issued, 1803, 
edited by Isaac Reed. The best edition is that of 1821. 

The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by William 
Aldis Wright. "The Cambridge Shakespeare." 9 vols. 
2nd ed. 1891. 
Contains a modern critical text. 

The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by William 
Aldis Wright and William George Clark. The "Globe" 
edition. 1 vol. 
This edition reprints the text of the preceding. Its line numbers are 
standard for reference. 

Annotations: • 

Malone. See above. 

The Tragedie of Macbeth. Edited by Horace Furness. "The 
Variormn" ed. 

The best storehouse of miscellaneous notes on the play. 

Macbeth. Edited by W. G. Clark and W. A. Wright. 
"The Clarendon Press" edition. 

The Tragedy of Macbeth. Edited by A. W. Verity. 

The Tragedie of Macbeth. Edited by Mark Harvey Liddell. 

The most careful study of the play, more particularly of the language 
of the play, so far made. 

The Chief Source of the Story of "Macbeth": 

Holinshed, Ralph. The Description and Chronicles of Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland. 1577, 1587. 
See Appendix I. For minor sources, see Introduction. 

ix 



X BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Special Articles: 

"Macbeth" in The Dictionary of National Biography. (For 

the historical Macbeth.) 
Moulton, Richard G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist , 

Chapter VI. {Macbeth as an oracular play), and The 

Ancient Classical Drama , Chapter VI . {Macbeth arranged 

as a classical tragedy). 
Montgomery, Jessie D. "Macbeth Considered as a Celt.'' 

National Review, vol. xiii, p. 181. 
Stopes, C. C. "Materials for Macbeth." Athenceumj July 25, 

1896. 

General Criticism. 

Coleridge, Essays and Lectures on Shakespeare. ("Every- 
man's Library.") 

Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare^ s Plays. ("Everyman's 
Library.") 

Gervinus, Commentaries on Shakespeare. Translated by 
Miss Burnett. With Introduction by Frederick J. Furni- 
vall. 

Shakspeareana Genealogica By George Russell French. 
(For notes on the characters of Macbeth.) 

Dowden, Edward, Shakspere. (" Literature Primers " series.) 

Hudson, Henry M., Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Char- 
acters. 

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearian Tragedy. 

Structure of the Drama: 

Freytag, Gustav. The Technique of the Drama. Translated 

by McEwan. 
Woodbridge, Elizabeth. The Drama, Its Law and Technique. 
Moulton, Richard. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. 

Grammar: ^ 

Abbott, Edwin Abbott. A Shakespearian Grammar. A new 
edition. 

Dictionaries: 

Schmidt, Alexander. Shakespeare- Lexicon. 3rd edition re- 
vised by Gregor Sarrazin. 2 vols. 1902. 

Murray, James. The Oxford English Dictionary. A New 
English Dictionary founded on Historical Principles. 
Referred to as n. e. d. 

Concordance: 

Bartlett, John. A New and Complete Concordance to Shake- 
speare. 



INTRODUCTION 

I — General Considerations 

The Place of " Macbeth." Macbeth stands chronologically last 
in the series of tragedies, Julius Coesar, Hamlety Othello, 
Lear, Macbeth — plays on which Shakespeare spent his per- 
fected art. All these plays are alike tragedies of temperament; 
each one of them brings some great but fated character into 
conflict with an environment to which he is unfitted, and from 
that conflict issues the inner history of the hero's soul, which 
is the main interest of the play. Macbeth distinguishes itself 
from the other tragedies named by the hero's voluntary 
participation in crime; but it is further distinguished by the 
incorporation of a supernatural action, so complete and power- 
ful that all the incidents of the play, in themselves coherent 
and self-sufficient, seem the fated fulfilment of destiny. The 
whole play, short, swift, simple in its main movement, is 
yet the most highly wrought of Shakespeare's works, — harmo- 
nized to the utmost, so that part answers part, line echoes line, 
motifs repeat themselves in subtle variations throughout its 
wonderful orchestration. The language of the play is in keeping 
with the highly wrought structure; it is picturesque, figurative, 
charged with meaning and passion, — at times turbid with 
condensation, with heaped-up figures. No play except Ham- 
let has given more to our language of superb phrases, and 
no play, not even Hamlet, vies with Macbeth in lines that record 
the psychology of crime, from its mysterious inception to the 
mental agony and world- weariness of the catastrophe. 

Macbeth does not offer us the most significant study of life 
among Shakespeare's tragedies; because the theme is self-ag- 
grandizement, and not a struggle for right, because the action 
presents the ruin of souls rather than their redemption through 
suffering. In this respect Hamlet, or Othello, or Lear is a more 

xi 



xii MACBETH 

moving play. But in respect to construction, wonderfully in- 
tricate and harmonious; in the conception of the leading char- 
acters, heroic, passionate, suffering; in the tremendous appeal 
to the imagination; in the language of the play — a pregnant 
lyric speech that speaks and speeds passion like great music, 
Macbeth stands unsurpassed among Shakespeare's works — the 
last accomplishment of his greatest dramatic period. 

Date of Composition. The composition of the Tragedy of 
Macbeth is very generally ascribed to the year 1606. It is cer- 
tainly not earlier than 1603; for we may well believe that it 
was the accession of a Scottish king to the throne of England 
in 1603, and the consequent interest in London in things Scot- 
tish, that turned Shakespeare to Scottish story for the material 
of a timely play. The theme and scene of the play, the amelio- 
ration of Banquo's character, and the representation of witch- 
craft show a close association of the play with a Scottish King 
who loved the drama, who claimed descent from Banquo, and 
who led the persecution of witches in Scotland and England. 
It may even have been written, in the first instance, for pro- 
duction before the court. Macbeth is then subsequent to 1603. 
It is also not later than 1610. For Dr. Simon Forman recorded 
in his note-book that he saw Macbeth played at the Globe on 
April 20, 1610. The pointed references to "equivocation'* in 
II, iii, 8^., and V, v, 43, point to a date between these two ter- 
mini; for the doctrine of equivocation became a by-word 
through the trial of the Jesuit Garnet, March, 1606, in which 
the doctrine greatly figured. The abundant harvest of 1606 is 
thought to be alluded to in II, iii, 4/. To that year, 1606, 
therefore, Macbeth is generally ascribed. Metrical tests (see 
Appendix II) are not against this ascription. 

Sources. The narrative basis of the play — the facts of the 
story as distinguished from the psychology of the characters — 
Shakespeare drew from Holinshed's Description and Chronicles 
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, first published in London in 
1577, and reissued in 1587, and subsequently. The reigns of 
Duncan and Macbeth are given in Volume I, pp. 239-252, of 
the first edition. With the story of Macbeth as given by Hol- 
inshed, Shakespeare blended splendid suggestions of dramatic 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

material from the story of an earlier Scottish reign, that of 
King Duff (HoHnshed, I, p. 208), who was murdered by Don- 
wald, egged on to the crime by his wife. The significant 
passages from HoHnshed are reprinted in Appendix I of this 
edition. The mention of witches in the HoHnshed story of 
Macbeth gave the starting-point for the incorporation of the 
ritual of witchcraft familiar to the Elizabethans by passages 
in the classics, but more particularly through the fury of witch- 
craft, its practice and persecution, which culminated about the 
time of the production of the play. 

Shakespeare shows himself possessed of further knowledge of 
the history of Macbeth. HoHnshed drew his story from the 
Latin history of Scotland by Hector Boece or Boethius (1465- 
1536), printed in 1527, which John Bellenden (fl.1533-1587) 
rendered into English in a version that was printed in 1536. 
Either from the Latin version or from the translation Shake- 
speare got important hints. Instances of these may be cited: — 

Boece (Bellenden) specifically suggests Macbeth, I, vii. — 
"His wife, impatient of long tarry, as all women are, especially 
where they are desirous of any purpose, gave him great artation 
{incited him) to pursue the third weird {witch) that she might 
be a queen, calling him ofttimes feeble coward, and not desir- 
ous of honors, since he durst not assail {carry through boldly) 
the thing with manhood and courage, which is offered him by 
benevolence of fortune, though sundry others here assailed such 
things before, with most terrible jeopardies, when they had 
not such sickerness {certainty) to succeed in the end of their 
labors as he had.'' (Tr. Bellenden, XH, in.) The words 
describing how the witches "by their illusion shall draw on to 
his confusion" (HI, v, 28 /.) and the term "butcher" applied 
to Macbeth (V, viii, 69) are from Boece-Bellenden. 

In general, however, it is only the frame of the story that 
Shakespeare borrows; and for dramatic reasons he modifies 
what he borrows. The Duncan of Shakespeare is more gracious, 
Banquo is much more honest. Lady Macbeth is more human, 
Macbeth more poetic and more desperate, than the same charac- 
ters in the original. As for the life of it all — the interpretation of 
the characters, the play of motive to act and the reactions of the 



xiv MACBETH 

deed, the shaping of all into the great impressive story and per- 
sonalities — that is Shakespeare's work, and Shakespeare's only. 

The Historical Macbeth. Elements of historical fact are, with- 
out doubt, found amidst the mass of fable making up the 
Macbeth story as recounted by Holinshed. It would seem 
(see Dictionary of National Biography, art. "Macbeth") that 
Macbeth, son of Finlay, was a sub-king in the reign of Mal- 
colm II. He was Tnormaor, or district chief, of Moray and 
-^ommander of the forces in the reign of Duncan. He rebelled 
against his master, slew him, and took his kingdom in 1040. 
His wife, Gruach, was the daughter of Boete, son of Kenneth 
III; through his marriage Macbeth had thus perhaps acquired 
a claim to the Scottish throne. "He seems to have represented 
the Celtic and Northern element in the population as against 
Duncan and his family, who were gradually drawing south, 
and connecting themselves by intermarriage and customs with 
the Saxons of England and Lothian." 

In 1050 he went to Rome, perhaps for the papal absolution. 

In 1054 Siward, Earl of Northumberland, took up the cause 
of his nephew or cousin Malcolm, invaded Scotland, and de- 
feating Macbeth, established Malcolm as King of Cumbria. 
Macbeth held out, north of the Mounth, until Malcolm defeated 
him at Lumphanan, August 15th, 1057, and became King of 
all Scotland. Macbeth left a nephew or son Lulach, who was 
slain the year following. 

Witchcraft and "Macbeth." New laws are always significant 
records of public opinion. The first year of the reign of James VI 
of Scotland as King of England was signalized by a new statute 
against witchcraft (1604) that marks both the practice of magic 
and the public belief in the malignant power of its devotees. 

This statute repealed the laws against witchcraft and magic 
of the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign, to impose heavier pen- 
alties. It enacted: — 

1. That if any person practise any invocation of an evil 
spirit; or consult with, covenant with, or reward any evil spirit; 
or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his or her grave, 
or the skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person, to be 
used in any manner of witchcraft; or shall use any witchcraft. 



INTRODUCTION xv 

whereby any person shall be killed, wasted, pined, or lamed, 
that offender, lawfully convicted, shall suffer death as a felon. 
2. If any person shall take upon him by witchcraft to 
tell in what place any treasure should be found, or goods or 
things lost, or to the intent to provoke any person to unlawful 
love, or whereby any cattle or goods shall be destroyed or im- 
paired, or to hurt any person in his body, although the same 
be not affected, that the offender shall suffer imprisonment 
for one year, and once in every quarter of the year, on market- 
day, stand on the pillory for the space of six hours and openly 
confess his offence. If the offender be a second time lawfully 
convicted, he shall suffer death as a felon. 

Public opinion, expressed in these enactments, was the re- 
sult of many forces. There was the ever-present suggestion 
of folk-lore story from which magic is rarely absent. The 
Bible, too, had familiarized the Christian world w^ith the 
story of the Witch of Endor and the activity of Satan in human 
affairs. The miracle-plays had shown the struggle of the" 
devils for the souls of men (the Porter of Macbeth harks back 
to the Porter of helFs mouth). The mediaeval world, projecting 
the conception of the organization of the Christian world into 
the realm of Satan, founded a hierarchy of evil spirits that was 
Christianity inverted — Satan as Prince of Devils, with his 
legions of ministers of evil, his fight for the souls of men in the 
maintenance and extension of his evil kingdom, his priests and 
nuns in the shape of wizards and witches, with Hecate as their 
Mary, with their baptisms and renunciation of God, their 
confessions, meetings, or "Sabbaths," and the constant practice 
of working wonders and doing evil with the aid of legions of 
minor devils. The Renaissance reinforced this popular be- 
lief with the stories and incantations of Circe, Medea, Canidia, 
in the works of Vergil, Ovid, and Horace. (The learning of 
the Renaissance concerning witchcraft is gathered in Ben 
Jonson's annotations to his Masque of Queens, 1609.) The 
Faustus story is typical of the attitude of the folk mind toward 
science and invention — the learned man can gain supernatural 
power only at the price of the forfeit of his soul to Satan. 



xvi MACBETH 

In the twilight of science, the superstitious and imaginative, 
when bent on evil, readily had recourse to magic. The perfected 
ritual of witchcraft won it its devotees, and at the same time 
excited terror in the pubHc. Elizabeth strove to suppress witch- 
craft by more specific enactments in the statute of 1562. Under 
this law those who caused death by magic art should suffer death; 
if only bodily harm resulted, they should suffer for a first offence 
a year's imprisonment and for a second offence death. The 
bloody persecutions of religion were extended to the black art. 

On the other hand, Reginald Scot, in his Discoverie of Witch- 
craft, 1584, gave an exposure of the system, crammed with 
detail gathered from books of the learned and the practice 
of the witches; Scot fought with learning and common sense 
the emotional insanity of the whole wretched business. Scot's 
book gave Shakespeare innumerable hints for the ritual of the 
Weird Sisters. But the practice and the fear of witchcraft 
grew. Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, 1588, is a sign of its hold 
on the public. The»accession of James VI of Scotland to the 
throne of England ushered in the trials and convictions that 
gave the seventeenth century its bad eminence. 

King James had interested himself in the question of witch- 
craft when John Feane and his associates were tried in Edin- 
burgh, in 1590, for sorcery. They had, it appeared, besides 
doing people to death by magic, raised the storm that had sep- 
arated the king's ship from its companions as King James was 
sailing to Denmark. The accused were put to death. (The 
story was given to the London public by Pitcairn in News from 
Scotland.^) James formulated his belief in a dialogue called 
Demonologie, printed in Edinburgh in 1597, and reprinted in 
London in 1603. His belief in witchcraft is here written out, 
fortified by the authority of verses of the Bible and references 
to men of learning — Bodinus, Hyperius, Hemmingius, Cor- 
nelius Agrippa, Wierus; "one called Scot, an Englishman," 
was in his opinion nothing short of a heretic; magicians and 
witches were in league with the Prince of the Air; they should, 
without regard to age, sex, or rank, be burned to death. 

The public terror showed itself in laws more and more 
» In Robert Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland, I, 213 fif. (1592). 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

stringent, in torture (in Scotland), hanging or burning on 
the Continent, in England, and subsequently in the colonies 
of New England. Pamphlets fed the public with the details 
of each trial — at Edinburgh, Lancaster, Abingdon, Ipswich, 
Essex. Preachers denounced witchcraft from the pulpit. In 
the midst of the fury, with the echoes of new laws, new trials, 
fresh executions, in the ears of his audience, Shakespeare pro- 
duced his Macbeth. 

^11 — Interpretation of '' Macbeth "j 

The Theme of the Play. Each play of Shakespeare's contains 
in its action the conflict growing out of some great phase 
or passion of life. In Macbeth the motive of the play is ambi- 
tion — an ambition so conditioned that its realization is possible 
only through crime. Crime becomes, therefore, the complica- 
tion of his story, and the reactions from evil done constitute a 
counteraction both in the spiritual life of the royal criminals 
and in the outer social world outraged by their deeds of murder. 

Crime is the complication and resolution of the story — evil 
ambition that steps through murder to its goal and seeks to 
maintain itself through murder and is overcome by return for 
evil done. This crime has a wonderful connotation and dra- 
matic visualization in the part of the Weird Sisters who hover on 
the borderland of humanity, instruments of the unseen powers of 
evil whose human allies they are. The note of evil finds its 
expression at the outset, — "Fair is foul and foul is fair." 

That note of evil can be traced in infinite repetitions in 
speech and deed throughout the play. At the last it meets 
the truth of life in the counteraction that centres in Malcolm, 
who, "fair,'' still paints himself **foul." 

Macbeth's vaulting ambition o'erleaps itself. 

"Even-handed justice 
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
To our own lips/' 

He seeks to maintain the thesis " things bad begun make strong 
themselves by ill," but his peace of mind, his cause, his life, 
come to naught, and justice and social order are vindicated in 
the person of the victim's son, Malcolm. 



xviii MACBETH 

The Atmosphere. Every play has its tone, its atmosphere, 
appropriate to its theme. Here Shakespeare **dips his pencil 
in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse." The heath, thun- 
der, lightning, rain, — that is the opening note, darkening into 
night, the season of all the important scenes of the play. The 
witches, whose element is the fog and filthy air, are '* secret, 
black, and midnight hags"; and Macbeth meets them "at 
set of sun." Night surrounds all the evil deeds and great 
scenes of the play — the contagion of evil infecting Macbeth 
and, again. Lady Macbeth, the murder of Duncan, the 
murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady Macbeth. The. 
great invocations of the play are addressed to night — painted 
again and again as the season of crime. Night brings to the 
criminal, not sleep — "Macbeth doth murder sleep" — but fresh 
crime and new unrest; or if sleep comes it is a restless ecstasy of 
horrible dreams or sleep-walking with fitful visions of horror. 

The human color counterpart to night is blood. The very 
word is iterated and reiterated more than elsewhere in Shake- 
speare. In how many scenes of first importance blood is in 
sight — Macbeth's victory; the sergeant's report; the murder of 
Duncan, after which Macbeth sees everything red in waking; 
the blood-boltered ghost of Banquo; the visions of Lady Mac- 
beth tortured in her sleep with the fatal persistence of the 
smell of blood still! 

Night and blood are the outer atmosphere — the atmosphere 
of the scenes of evil deeds, the physical concomitants of crime 
— what of the inner atmosphere, the spiritual state of the per- 
sons of the story? The human spirit here is suffused with 
tragic passion. Night and blood are but external signs of a 
spiritual uproar. The characters of the play are wrought 
to a spiritual tension in keeping with a great crime. Every 
word quivers with emotion, every scene wings the imagination. 
The play does not portray murder — the very murder of Duncan 
is kept from our eyes, so that the imagination may be free to 
grasp the real interest, the psychology of the murderers. 

The Action. The action is three-fold, — a three-fold action 
woven out of an outer action of Macbeth against the state; 
a spiritual conflict in Macbeth's soul and in the soul of Lady 



INTRODUCTION xix 

Macbeth; and both outer and inner actions are related to a 
supernatural action through the association of Macbeth with 
the powers of evil. 

I — The Outer Action, Here we have the framework of the 
story — the mere facts of the action as respects Macbeth and 
the state. Macbeth desires the crown worn by his kinsman 
Duncan; he wavers in his will till his wife determines him; 
he kills Duncan; he accuses Duncan's sons of the murder; 
he gains the throne: then he murders Banquo to frustrate a 
prophecy that Banquo's children should succeed; then mur- 
ders all in the castle of Macduff to frustrate an oracle that 
declared Macduff his chief enemy. By these deeds he arrays 
against him the King's sons, especially Malcolm, and the 
Scottish nobility, especially Macduff; so that all the forces of 
order and justice unite, and the moral world — the will of right- 
minded men — is reasserted when Macbeth falls beneath the 
sword of the Thane of Fife, and Malcolm reigns in his stead. 

II — The Inner Action, Shakespeare's real interest does not 
lie in the outer action. It is the skeleton, not the life, of his 
drama. It is the portrayal of the inner action, the spiritual 
life of Macbeth and the dearest partner of his greatness, that 
interests us in this play. Macbeth is a drama of the ruin of souls. 

Macbeth, the hero, is first presented in heroic guise. We see 
him, at the outset, as the successful general, returning flushed 
with victory over the rebels of the Western Isles and the invad- 
ing Danes. He has won not merely the strategic victory of the 
general but the personal glory of the warrior, having slain, 
hand to hand, the arch-rebel, the merciless Macdonwald. 
He is the great man of the time, compared with whom the 
reigning king, Duncan, is only a sentimental king, gracious in 
mind, but lacking discernment, courage, strength, in turbulent 
times, to rule. In nature Macbeth, till he meets the witches, 
is loyal — no rancors in the sacred vessels of his peace, the milk 
of human kindness is still in his veins. If there be a flaw in 
his nature, the rift has not y^t shown itself to the world. 
And he has one flaw, visible to the one nearest him, who 
knows him best. Not a wrong-doer, he would profit by 
wrong-doing; would not play false — said his wife — and yet 



XX MACBETH 

would wrongly win. Thus his loyalty of nature is unsafe, 
is in unstable equilibrium; the proper temptation at the oppor- 
tune time will send him headlong. Ambition whispers to the 
saviour of the country; suggestions as if from cosmic evil reach 
him. Why should not he, the great man of the time — the one 
man of the royal family — be King rather than Duncan? And 
the answer to the temptation offered by the witches is the fatal 
answer of his temperament. 

To explain Macbeth^s actions, we must study his character. 
Macbeth has, like all Shakespeare's dramatic characters, 
the nature that explains all his words and deeds. Macbeth 
is no vulgar cut-throat. Notice his keen sensibility, nervous 
organism, acute, even morbid imagination. There is the 
field of the inner action. He is a poet or a painter in the dis- 
tinctness with which color and form affect him: — you think 
of Dore when Macbeth etches out those terrible pictures of 
night and evil that come from his lips. What does this imagi- 
native nature do for him? He is superstitious, is given to 
hallucinations. The uncanny easily finds credence in such 
a man. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth live, too, among the 
moors and mists of the Highlands — the atmosphere of which 
Norse mythology was born. Therefore the Weird Sisters, the 
dagger, the ghost of Banquo, are to him realities. He is of a 
passionate nature; as such, he sees but one object and is blind to 
the rest, feels one desire and recks not of consequences. It is 
for that reason that when Macbeth's mind plays with the pros- 
pect of the crown, imagination fascinates him and his passion 
carries him forward to fresh murder. 

He is a man of physical courage, yet his imagination is strong- 
er than his courage. Not present fears but horrible imaginings 
unman him. Let him outrage his conscience with crime and 
his imagination awakes; he feels himself an outcast from man 
and God, he cannot say amen; he sees till his death halluci- 
nations, ghosts of blood-stained men. The taint spreads, 
corroding and agonizing. Sleep that knits up the ravelled 
sleave of care leaves his pillow, or else he sleeps in the affliction 
of terrible dreams, he lies on the torture of the mind in rest- 
less ecstasy. Step by step his will weakens; self-control, 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

courage become desperation. Crime from the single thought 
becomes a raging torrent, — each fresh deed only adds to the 
avenging furies that pursue him, till finally death brings the 
eternal rest. Wonderful unity of character! — itself the central 
point of the play as well as the explanation of all actions, all 
relations, all deeds of the play. What an opportunity for the 
actor in such a role! 

Yet Lady Macbeth is a more tragic figure than her husband, 
for we pity her and we can scarcely pity him — and pity is es- 
sential in tragedy. The two natures are distinct and yet correl- 
ative, and they are man and woman even in their common 
crime. The time is past when Lady Macbeth can be regarded 
as a large, coarse-limbed virago — "merely detestable," as Dr. 
Johnson said. She is not what Mrs. Jameson describes her, 
the "evil genius to her husband, a terrible personification of 
evil passions." To Macbeth she is the "dearest partner of my 
greatness"; to the nobles, "most gentle lady." With subtle 
touches the woman — daughter, wife, mother — is suggested. 
You see the fineness of her nature and the keenness of her 
sensibility breathed out unconsciously in the sleep-walking — 
"Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will 
not sweeten this little hand." With that fineness of nature 
there is united a will of steel, a practical will — a force that can 
be wrought to command, to impel, drive all to its own tune and 
fashion, but liable, like fine high-pressure mechanism, to go sud- 
denly to pieces, to total collapse. An imperious nature — notice 
that "the fatal entrance of Duncan" is "under my battlements." 

With her, memory is as keen as with Macbeth imagination 
is, and it is a woman's memory. The thought of her babe 
returns to her in her supreme appeal to Macbeth's fortitude — 

" I have given suck, and know 
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." 

As she looks on Duncan, thinking herself to do the murder, 
the face of her father comes to her mind and checks her. 

But these things are as nothing to the realization of her pur- 
pose. She is a wife; she can do all that may become a wife, 
who dares do more is none. She knows her husband through 



xxii MACBETH 



and through — is, heart and soul, one with him in his interests. 
It is clear to her that Macbeth dreams of kingship without the 
courage to ''sin the whole sin." He would not play false and 
yet would wrongly win. Lady Macbeth has no lukewarm 
blood. It was enough for her that her husband would be 
king; her part therefore was clear; she would be the practical 
will and courage he lacked: — 

"Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be 
What thou art promised. ... 

Hie thee hither 
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear 
And chastise with the valor of my tongue 
All that impedes thee from the golden round." 

Do you suppose if Macbeth had willed the right, she would have 
failed him ? We know she would have been by his side — reso- 
lute, resourceful, successful. She failed only in that she thwarted 
her nature, stifled her sensibility, and bound herself to evil. 

But her nature could not follow her will. Her fainting after 
the murder is the first note of the collapse of her nature that 
ends in sleep-walking and death. She too has misunderstood 
life terribly. We see a glimpse of her in her real self just 
before the banquet scene — restless, unsatisfied, unhappy as 
Macbeth himself: 

"Nought's had, all's spent. 
Where our desire is got without content." 

But let her husband enter — she is by his side once more, ready, 
resolute, resourceful, daring — 

" Things without all remedy 
Should be without regard. . . . 
Be bright and jovial 'mong our guests to-night." 

If Macbeth regrets that Banquo and Fleance live, she boldly 
voices his secret thought — 

"But in them nature's copy's not eterne." 

She appears in the coronation banquet to support, counsel, 
govern her frenzied husband, to explain, persuade, dismiss the 
frightened guests. But she has no part in the later path of 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

blood through which Macbeth descends to the deep damnation 
of his taking off — no primrose path, though it lead to the ever- 
lasting bonfire. She disappears from the action, as the need 
of will disappears. It is desperation alone that rules the dark- 
ening mind of her husband. 

Death can come to such a nature only as a relief. And it is 
quite a part of Lady Macbeth's nature that it should come 
by an act of resolution. Such an act her physician feared: — 
"Remove from her the means of all annoyance." No word 
escaped her waking lips to warn Macbeth of her state. Mac- 
beth knows her state in the end, but only through the doctor's 
report, and never to the full. It is of himself that he thinks 
chiefly when he talks with her physician. 

As for Macbeth, he has now supped full with horrors. The 
worst can no longer move him. 

^^ Wherefore was that cry? 

Sey. The Queen, my lord, is dead. 

Mach. She should have died hereafter: 
There would have been a time for such a word. — 
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day. 
To the last syllable of recorded time; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candlel 
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player. 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more: it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing.'' 

Life that in its fairest morning shone in glory and renown 
sinks in horrible ennui at last. That is the history of the inner 
tragedy of this royal criminal. 

Ill — The Supernatural or Oracular Action. Shakespeare 
has given to Macbeth a unique character, a special glamour, 
by adding to the foregoing actions a supernatural action. 
Taking the suggestion of the witches of Holinshed's stories 
of Macbeth and Duff, Shakespeare's imagination here created 
not merely portentous figures out of the black hags of 
popular superstition; he gave a fresh setting-forth of the 



XXIV 



MACBETH 



Faust legend already treated in the drama by Marlowe — the 
temptation of the human soul by its longing for supreme power; 
its compact with the powers of evil; the fruitless struggk of the 
soul to regain its peace. Great as is Marlowe's achievement 
in Dr. Faustus^ we must still regret that the more perfect story 
of Faust was pre-empted, and that Shakespeare was forced 
to use the motive only as a connotation or enhancement of 
his main theme. Incorporating through the Weird Sisters the 
Faust motive, Shakespeare seized on the witchcraft and de- 
monology of his time to give form and character to his con- 
ception. According to this conception, creatures of mortal 
birth, but of more than mortal knowledge, hovering between 
earth and sky, gifted by means of their intercourse with evil 
spirits, ministers of the devil, with supernatural knowledge 
and influence, ensnare human souls by temptation, by '* honest 
trifles," by the promise of power, lure them on to their con- 
fusion, and betray them in deepest consequence. Macbeth's 
life is so expressed that it unfolds and fulfils the prophecies 
uttered by the Weird Sisters. From this point of view the 
action of the play is oracular. 

The witches at the outset sound the note of their part — it is 
evil, moral confusion, obliteration of the distinction of right 
and wrong — "Fair is foul and foul is fair." There are three 
witches, and their most characteristic speeches are in triads, in 
sets of three, marked off at the outset from normal human 
speech by a four-accent trochaic metre; they elaborate all the 
ritual of magic that centres in the cauldron, the incantation, the 
dance. Macbeth could have lived his fateful life just as he 
lived it, without the witches, but his life becomes peculiarly 
tragic when he binds up his fate with the will and purpose of 
the fearful and malevolent powers of a supernatural world. 
It is a spectacle for Greek tragedy to watch the fruitless struggle 
of Macbeth caught in the meshes of his sin — seeking now to 
help or now to oppose the oracles, and always aiding their in- 
evitable fulfilment. It is a spectacle, none more moving, of the 
irony of poor humanity seeking to rise above the limitations of 
life and law by compact with evil, struggling to maintain an 
impossible thesis that "Things bad begun make strong them- 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

selves by ill," and ending in a state to make life a fitful fever, 
day a weariness, and death an enviable sleep. 

The Brevity of "Macbeth." Macbeth, among Shakespeare's 
tragedies, is unique in its brevity. There are only 1993 
lines, while the average length of his tragedies is 3220. 
Because of its shortness, the text of Macbeth is generally be- 
lieved not to be in the state in which it left Shakespeare's 
hand — *' without a blot"; it is thought that the text as we have 
it in the First Folio is printed from the acting version, — "cut " to 
suit some peculiar requirement of which nothing is yet known. 
This view is pushed to an impossible extreme by Professor 
Barrett Wendell — Macbeth is, he says, "what you may make of 
any Elizabethan tragedy by cutting out everything but the 
main action." (William Shakspere, p. 304.) 

The truth is that Macbeth is, in all essentials, complete, fin- 
ished, and perfect, even to the subactions. The construction 
conforms absolutely to the Shakespearian method. It has the 
two usual subactions, one centring in Banquo to provide for 
the climax; one centring in Macduff to provide for the catas- 
trophe. It varies the tragic action, not by the usual comic 
by-play, but by the witch scenes, — their ritual, incantations, and 
dances. These are in harmony with the tone of the play, which 
keeps throughout its course a single tragic tone. The very 
Porter scene is humorous only in expression; the whole scene 
enhances a murder-scene by dramatic irony, and is deeply 
serious in its import and in its relation to the action. 

That Shakespeare could, if he chose, have written Macbeth in 
the brief scale, is a freedom that must be accorded the artist. 
Sophocles wrote his tragedies with an average of only 1490 lines. 
That such brevity in the treatment of the whole was intentional 
is obvious from. the brevity of Lady Macbeth's part; all that she 
says is contained in 238 lines, and the part is complete. In 
actual production the play, too, is longer than it seems in 
the mere text. The witch scenes with their chants, dances, 
and apparitions take up more than the usual time of dialogue. 
The music indicated in the Folio at IV, i, 43a, is not accounted 
for by the 1993 lines of the play and could further extend its 
duration. And the tempo in which such scenes as II, ii, iii; 



XXVI MACBETH 

III, iv; IV, i; V, i, are presented is slow, utilizing the utmost 
possibilities of the dramatic pause. 

Any " cutting '* that the play has suffered has not gone be- 
yond stray lines; not the smallest member of the play has been 
elided; serious elision in a play so intricately interrelated as 
Macbeth may be regarded as impossible. 

The Question of Joint Authorship. The theory that Shake- 
speare had a collaborator in the writing of Macbeth has the 
authority of the editors of the Clarendon text of the play. 
Their supposed clew was the introduction of the songs indi- 
cated in the stage directions of III, v, and IV, i (see the notes to 
these songs in the present edition). These were first printed 
in full in Davenant's version of Macbeth. Malone first pointed 
out that the songs were part of Middleton's Witdi which 
had remained in MS. from Shakespeare's time. The Claren- 
don editors thought that certain scenes of the play — the ser- 
geant's report, the Porter, the part of Hecate, the passage on the 
king's evil, and the conclusion of the play, for instance, do not 
show "the hand of the master." These, therefore, they as- 
cribed to Thomas Middleton. 

The theory has not won favor. De Quincey long ago vindi- 
cated the Porter scene as the work of the master hand. The 
sergeant's speech is not "bombastic rhetoric" but a necessary 
introduction of the heroic story of Macbeth, keyed to the tension 
of the play. The participation of the Witches in the climax of 
the Third Act is required by Shakespeare's dramatic method 
and prepares for the "turn " of the play to its resolution. The 
conclusion is similarly needed for that note of stable equilibrium 
which marks the close of all Shakespeare's tragedies — from 
Romeo and Juliet to Macbeth. Such things were in Shake- 
speare's method; they are in Macbeth, not because they were 
subsequently interpolated, but because as Shakespeare con- 
ceived the structure of tragedy they were required, and he 
supplied them. To allow a third-rate dramatist like Middleton 
to meddle with the intricate construction of Macbeth is to believe 
that Wagner had some inferior musician contribute scenes to 
Tristam and Isolde, 



THE 

TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 

Duncan, King of Scotland. 

banqu™' } ^^^^^«^« ^/ ^^^ ^^^^'« ^^^y- 

Macduff, 
Lennox, 

Menteith, f ^«&'«'««« «/ Scotland. 

Angus, 

Caithness, / 

Fleance, Son to Banquo. 

SiWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English 

Forces. 
Young SiWARD, his Son. 
Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth. 
Boy, Son to Macduff. 
An English Doctor. 
A Scottish Doctor. 
A Sergeant. 
A Porter. 
An Old Man. 

Lady Macbeth. 
Lady Macduff. 
• A Gentlewoman, attending on Lady Macbeth. 

Hecate. 

Three Witches. 
Apparitions. 

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Servants, 
Attendants, and Messengers. 

SCENE 

Acts I, II, III — Scotland. Act IV — Scotland and England. 
Act V — Scotland. 



THE TRAGEDY OF 
MACBETH 

Act First 
Scene I 
A Wild Place in the Scottish Highlands. 
Thunder and lightning. Enter the Three Witches. 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again ? 

In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 
Second Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, 

When the battle's lost and won. 
Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 5 

First Witch. Where the place? 
Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 
First Witch. I come, Graymalkin. 
Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 

Third Witch. Anon! 

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair; 

Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt, lo 



4 MACBETH [act i. sen. 

Scene II 

The King's Camp near Forres. 

Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, 
DoNALBAiN, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting 
a bleeding Sergeant. 

Duncan. What bloody man is that ? He can report, 
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
The newest state. 

Malcolm. This is the sergeant 

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 

'Gainst my captivity. — Hail, brave friend! 5 

Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 

As thou didst leave it. 

Sergeant. Doubtful it stood; 

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — 

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that lo 

The multiplying villanies of nature 

Do swarm upon him ! — from the Western Isles 

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; 

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 

Showed like a rebel's whore: but alFs too weak; 15 

For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name ! — 

Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, 

\^Tiich smoked with bloody execution, 

Like valor's minion carved out his passage 

Till he faced the slave; 20 

W^hich ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 

Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops. 

And fixed his head upon our battlements. 



>cTi. sen] MACBETH 5 

Dun. O valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 

Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 25 

Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break, 
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come 
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark; — 
No sooner justice had, with valor armed. 
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30 
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage. 
With furbished arms and new suppHes of men, 
Began a fresh assault. 

Dun. Dismayed not this 

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ? 

Ser. Yes; 

As sparrows eagles^ or the hare the lion. 35 

If I say sooth, I must report they were 

As cannons overcharged with double cracks ; so they 

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. 

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 

Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 

I cannot tell — 

But I am faint; my gashes cry for help. 

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons. 

Exit Sergeant, attended. 

Enter Ross. 

Who comes here? 
Mai. The worthy Thane of Ross. 45 

Lennox. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should 
he look 

That seems to speak things strange. 
Ross. God save the King! 



6 MACBETH [act i. sc.m. 

Dun. Whence earnest thou, worthy Thane ? 

Ross, From Fife, great King; 

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
And fan our people cold. Norway himself 50 

With terrible numbers, — 
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
The Thane of Cawdor, — began a dismal conflict; 
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof, 
Confronted him with self-comparisons, . 55 

Point against point rebelHous, arm 'gainst arm, 
Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude, . 
The victory fell on us. 
Dun. Great happiness! 

Ross. — That now 

Sweno, the Norways' King, craves composition; 60 

Nor would we deign him burial of his men 
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's Inch, 
Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 

Dun. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive 

Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, 65 
And with his former title greet Macbeth. 

Ross, ril see it done. 

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. 

Exeunt 

Scene III 

A Blasted Heath. 

Thunder. Enter the Three Witches. 

First Witch. Where hast thou been. Sister? 
Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 
Third Witch. Sister, where thou ? 



ACT I. sc. Ill] MACBETH 7 

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, 

And munched, and munched, and munched. 

'' Give me,'' quoth I. 5 

*' Aroint thee, witch! " the rump-fed ronyon cries. 

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger; 

But in a sieve I'll thither sail, 

And, like a rat without a tail, 

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 10 

Sec. Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 
First Witch. Thou 'rt kind. 
.Third Witch. And I another. 
First Witch. I myself have all the other; 

And the very ports they blow, 15 

All the quarters that they know 

I' th' shipman's card. 

I will drain him dry as hay; 

Sleep shall neither night nor day 

Hang upon his pent-house lid; 20 

He shall live a man forbid : 

Weary se'nnights, nine times nine, 

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine, 

Though his bark cannot be lost, 

Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 25 

Look what I have. 
Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 
First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 

Wrack' d as homeward he did come. Drum within. 
Third Witch. A drum, a drum! 30 

Macbeth doth come. 
All. The weird Sisters, hand in hand, 

Posters of the sea and land, 

Thus do go, about, about; 



8 MACBETH [act i. sc. m. 

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35 

And thrice again, to make up nine. 
Peace! the charm's wound up. 

Enter Macbeth and Banquo. 

Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not geen. 

Banquo. How far is 't called to Forres ? What are these, 

So withered, and so wild in their attire, 40 

That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth. 
And yet are on 't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
That man may question ? You seem to understand 

me. 
By each at once her choppy finger laying 
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, 45 

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
That you are so. 

Macb. Speak, if you can. What are you ? 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee. Thane of 
Glamis ! 

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee. Thane of 
Cawdor! 

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! that shalt be King here- 
after! 50 

Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear 

Things that do sound so fair ? I' the name of truth. 

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 

Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 

You greet with present grace, and great prediction 55 

Of noble having and of royal hope. 

That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not. 

If you can look into the seeds of time, 

And say which grain will grow, and which will not. 



ACT I. 8c. Ill] MACBETH 9 

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 

Your favors nor your hate. 
First Witch, Hail! 
Sec. Witch. Hail! 
Third Witch. Hail! 

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater! 65 

Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yei much happier ! 
Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be 
none ! 

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 
First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! 
Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. 70 

By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis; 

But how of Cawdor-? The Thane of Cawdor lives, 

A prosperous gentleman ; and to be King 

Stands not within the prospect of belief. 

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 75 

You owe this strange intelligence, or why 

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 

With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 

Witches vanish. 
Ban, The earth hath bubbles as the water has. 

And these are of them. Whither are they vanished ? so 
Macb. Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted 

As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed! 
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about ? 

Or have we eaten on the insane root 

That takes the reason prisoner? 85 

Macb. Your children shall be kings. 
Ban. You shall be King. 

Macb. And Thane of Cawdor too ; went it not so ? 
Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here ? 



10 MACBETH [act i. sc. m. 

Enter Ross and Angus. 

Ross. The King hath happily received, Macbeth, 

The news of thy success : and when he reads 90 

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 

His wonders and his praises do contend 

Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that, 

In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day. 

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 95 

Nothing af card of what thyself didst make. 

Strange images of death. As thick as tale 

Came post with post, and every one did bear 

Thy praises in his Kingdom's great defence. 

And poured them down before him. 

Angus. \ We are sent lOO 

To give thee from our royal master thanks; 
Only to herald thee into his sight, 
Not pay thee. 

Ross. And for an earnest of a greater honor. 

He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor; 105 
In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane! 
For it is thine. 

Ban. What, can the devil speak true ? 

Macb. The Thane of Cawdor lives ; why do you dress me 
In borrowed robes? 

Ang. Who was the Thane, lives yet, 

But under heavy judgment bears that life no 

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was com- 
bined 
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
He labored in his country's wrack, I know not; 



ACT I. sc. Ill] MACBETH 11 

But treasons capital, confessed and proved, ii5 

Have overthrown him. 

Macb. [Aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor; 

The greatest is behind. — Thanks for your pains. 
— Do you not hope your children shall be kings. 
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me 
Promised no less to them ? 

Ban. That trusted home, 120 

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown. 
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. /But 'tis strange: 
^ And oftentimes, to win us to our harm. 
The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 125 

In deepest consequence. — 
Cousins, a word, I pray you. 

Macb, [Aside] Two truths are told, 

As happy prologues to the swelling act 
Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. — 
[Aside] This supernatural soUciting 130 

Cannot be ill; cannot be good: if ill, 
Why hath it given me earnest of success. 
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor: 
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 135 

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
Against the use of nature? Present fears 
Are less than horrible imaginings ; 
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 
Shakes so my single state of man that function 140 

Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is 
But what is not. 

Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt I 



12 MACBETH [act i. sc. iv. 

Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me King, why, chanctb |t/r^ 
may crown me. 

Without my stir. 
Ban. New honors come upon him. 

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 145 

But with the aid of use. 
Macb. [Aside] Come what come may. 

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 
Macb. Give me your favor; my dull brain was wrought 

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 

Are registered where every day I turn 

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. 

Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, 

The interim having weighed it, let us speak 

Our free hearts each to other. 
Ban. Very gladly. 155 

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. Exeunt. 

Scene IV 

Forres. The King's Palace. 

Flourish. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Don- 
ALBAiN, Lennox, and Attendants. 

Duncan. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
Those in commission yet returned ? 

Malcolm. My liege. 

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
With one that saw him die, who did report 
That very frankly he confessed his treasons, 5 

Implored your Highness' pardon, and set forth 



a::t I. sc. iv] MACBETH 13 

A deep repentance. Nothing in his life 
Became him Hke the leaving it; he died 
As one that had been studied in his death 
* To throw away the dearest thing he owed lo 

As 'twere a careless trifle. 
Dun. There's no art 

To find the mind's construction in the face; 
He was a gentleman on whom I built 
An absolute trust. 

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus. 

O worthiest cousin! 
The sin of my ingratitude even now 15 

Was heavy on me; thou art so far before, 
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 
That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
Might have been mine ! Only I have left to say, 20 

More is thy due than more than all can pay. 

Macbeth. The service and the loyalty I owe, 

In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness' part 
Is to receive our duties ; and our duties 
Are to your throne and state children and servants; 25 
Which do but what they should, by doing every- 
thing 
Safe toward your love and honor. 

Dun. Welcome hither; 

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor 
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 30 

No less to have done so ; let me infold thee 
And hold thee to my heart. 



14 MACBETH [act i. sc. iv. 

Banquo. There if I grow, 

The harvest is your own. 

Dun. My plenteous joys. 

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 35 

And you whose places are the nearest, know, 
We will establish our estate upon 
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must 
Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
And bind us further to you. 

Macb. The rest is labor, which is not used for you; 

ril be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 45 

The hearing of my wife with your approach; 
So humbly take my leave. 

Dun, My worthy Cawdor! 

Macb. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland ! that is a step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; so 

Let not light see my black and deep desires ; 
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Exit 

Dun. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 

And in his commendations I am fed; 55 

It is a banquet to me. Let's after him, 

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome; 

It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt. 



ACT I. sc v.] MACBETH 15 

Scene V 

Inverness. Macbeth' s Castle. 

Enter ^l^ABY Macbeth alone, with a letter. 

Lady Macbeth. ^^They met me in the day of success; and 
I have learned by the perfectest report, they have 
more in them than mortal knowledge. When I 
burned in desire to question them further, they made 
themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles 5 
I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from 
the king, who all-hailed me ^ Thane of Cawdor;' 
by which title, before, these weird Sisters saluted me, 
and referred me to the coming on of time, with * Hail, 
King that shalt be ! ' This have I thought good lO 
to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, 
that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by 
being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee, 
Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.'' 

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be 15 

What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; 
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness 
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; 
Art not without ambition, but without 
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst 

highly, 20 

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, 
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ldst have, 

great Glamis, 
That which cries ''Thus thou must do!'' if thou 

have it; 
And that which rather thou dost fear to do 



16 MACBETH [act i. sc. v. 

Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 25 

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, 

And chastise with the valor of my tongue 

All that impedes thee from the golden round. 

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 

To have thee crowned withal. ' 

Enter a Messenger. 

What is your tidings ? so 

Messenger. The King comes here to-night. 

Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it. 

Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so. 
Would have informed for preparation. 

Mess, So please you, it is true; our Thane is coming; 

One of my fellows had the speed of him, 35 

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
Than would make up his message. 

Lady M, Give him tending; 

He brings great news. [Exit Messenger] 

The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements. — Come, you spirits 40 

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. 
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full 
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, 
. Stop up the access and passage to remorse. 
That no compunctious visitings of nature 45 

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts. 
And take my milk for gall, you murdering min- 
isters. 
Wherever in your sightless substances 



ACT I. 8c. v.] MACBETH 17 

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, 60 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes. 
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
To cry "Hold, hold!" 

Enter Macbeth. 

Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor I * 
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! 66 

Thy letters have transported me beyond 
This ignorant present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant. 

Macbeth. My dearest love, 

Duncan comes here to-night. 

Lady M. And when goes hence? 

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 

Lady M,— " O, never 60 

Shall sun that morrow see ! 
Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters. To beguile the time. 
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye. 
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent 

flower, 65 

But be the serpent under 't. He that's coming 
Must be provided for; and you shall put 
This night's great business into my despatch; 
Which shall to all our nights and days to come 
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 70 

Macb, We will speak further. 

Lady M. Only look up clear; 

To alter favor ever is to fear. 
Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt. 



18 MACBETH [act i. sc. vi. 

t-- • ■ 

Scene VI 

Inverness, Before Macbeth's Castle. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter King Duncan, Mal- 
colm, DONALBAIN, BaNQUO, LeNNOX, MaC- 

DUFF, Ross, Angus, and Attendants. 

Duncan. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air 
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 

Banquo. This guest of summer, 

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve 
By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath 5 

Smells wooingly here; — no jutty, frieze. 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle. 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have ob- 
served 
The air is delicate. 

Enter Lady MacbetHo 

Dun. See, see, our honored hostess! lo 

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble. 
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains. 
And thank us for your trouble. 

Lady Macbeth. All our service 

In every point twice done, and then done double, 15 

Were poor and single business to contend 
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith 
Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old, 
And the late dignities heaped up to them, 



ACT I. sc. VII. ] MACBETH 19 

We rest your hermits. Where's the Thane of 

Cawdor ? 20 

Dun. We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 
To be his purveyor; but he rides well, 
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 
We are your guest to-night. 

Lady M. Your servants ever 25 

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, 
To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure, 
Still to return your own. 

Dun. Give me your hand; 

Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly, 
And shall continue our graces toward him. 30 

By your leave, hostess. Exeunt. 

Scene VH 

Within Macbeth' s Castle, -d. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers 
Servants, with dishes and service ^ over the 
stage. Then enter Macbeth. 

Macbeth. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well 
It were done quickly. If the assassination 
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch. 
With his surcease, success ; that but this blow 
Might be the be-all and the end-all, — here, 5 

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,. 
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases 
We still have judgment here; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which being taught return 



20 MACBETH [act i. sc. vh. 

To plague the inventor; this even-handed justice lo 

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 

To our own lips. He's here in double trust: 

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 

Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 

Who should against his murderer shut the door, 15 

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 

So clear in his great office, that his virtues 

Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against 

The deep damnation of his taking-off; 20 

And pity, like a naked new-born babe. 

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed 

Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 25 

To prick the sides of my intent, but only 

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 

And falls on th' other. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

How now! what news? 
Lady Macbeth. He has almost supped; why have you left 

the chamber ? 
Macb. Hath he asked for me ? 

Lady M, Know you not he has ? 

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business. 

He hath honored me of late; and I have bought 

Golden opinions from all sorts of people. 

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 

Not cast aside so soon. 
Lady M, Was the hope drunk 



30 



35 



ACT I. sc. vii] MACBETH 21 

Wherein you dressed yourself ? hath it slept since ? 

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 

At what it did so freely ? From this time 

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 

To be the same in thine own act and valor 40 

As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 

Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 

And live a coward in thine own esteem. 

Letting " I dare not " wait upon ** I would,'' 

Like the poor cat i' the adage ? 

Macb. Prithee, peace: 45 

I dare do all that may become a man ; 
Who dares do more, is none. 

Lady M. What beast was 't then 

That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
And, to be more than what you were, you would 50 

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both; 
They have made themselves, and that their fitness 

now 
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; 55 

I would, while it was smiling in my face. 
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums. 
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
Have done to this. 

Macb. If we should fail? 

Lady M. We fail! 

But screw your courage to the sticking place, 60 

And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 



22 MACBETH [ACT I 



SC. VII. 



Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 

Will I with wine and wassail so convince, 

That memory, the warder of the brain, 65 

Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 

A limbec only. When in swinish sleep 

Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 

What cannot you and I perform upon 

The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon 70 

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 

Of our great quell ? 

Macb. Bring forth men-children only; 

For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two 75 
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers, 
That they have done 't? 

Lady M. Who dares receive it other. 

As we shall make our grief and clamor roar 
Upon his death ? 

Macb. I am settled, and bend up 

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. so 

Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

Exeunt 



Act Second 
Scene I 

Inverness. Court of Macbetlis Castle, 
Enter Banquo, and Fleance, with a torch before him. 

Banquo. How goes the night, boy ? 

Fleance. The moon is down ; I have not heard the clock. 

Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 

Fie. I take 't, 'tis later, sir. 

Ban. Hold, take my sword. — There's husbandry in 
heaven, 
Their candles are all out. — Take thee that too. 5 

A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers. 
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
Gives way to in repose! 

Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch. 

Give me my sword. — 
Who's there? lo 

Macbeth. A friend. 

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The King's a-bed ; 
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
Sent forth great largess to your offices ; 
This diamond he greets your wife withal, 15 

By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
In measureless content. 

23 



24 MACBETH [act ii. sc. i. 

Macb. Being unprepared, 

Our will became the servant to defect, 

Which else should free have wrought. 
Ban. , All's well. 

I dreamt last night of the three weird Sisters : 20 

To you they have showed some truth. 
Macb. I think not of them; 

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 

We would spend it in some words upon that business, 

If you would grant the time. 
Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 25 

It shall make honor for you. 
Ban. So I lose none 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 

I shall be counselled. 
Macb. Good repose the while! 

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you! 30 

Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. 
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready. 

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 

Exit Servant. 

Is this a dagger, which I see before me. 

The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch 
thee. 

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 36 

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 

To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 

A dagger of the mind, a false creation. 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 

I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 



ACT II. sc. I] MACBETH 25 

As this which now I draw. 

Thou marshairst me the way that I was going; 

And such an instrument I was to use. 

Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, 

Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still; 45 

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 

Which was not so before. There's no such thing! 

It is the bloody business which informs 

Thus to mine eyes. — Now o'er the one half -world 

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 

The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates 

Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder, 

Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, 

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy 

pace. 
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, toward his de- 
sign 55 
Moves like a ghost. — Thou sure and firm-set earth, 
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout. 
And take the present horror from the time. 
Which now suits with it. — Whiles I threat, he 

lives : 60 

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 

A bell rings, 
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. — 
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell 
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. Exit, 



26 MACBETH [act h. sc. h. 

Scene II 

The Same. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady Macbeth, That which hath made them drunk hath 
made me bold; 

What hath quenched them hath given me fire. 
— Hark ! Peace ! 

It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, 

Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it; 

The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms 5 

Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged 
their possets. 

That death and nature do contend about them, 

Whether they live or die. 
Macbeth. [Within.] Who's there? what, ho! 

Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked 

And 'tis not done; th' attempt and not the deed lo 

Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; 

He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 

My father as he slept, I had done 't. — 

Enter Macbeth. 
j / My husband ! 

Macb, I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a 

noise ? 
Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 15 

Did not you speak ? 
Macb. When? 

Lady M. Now. 

Macb. As I descended ? 



ACT II. sc. II.] MACBETH 27 

Lady M. Ay. 
Mach. Hark! 

Who lies i' the second chamber ? 
Lady M. Donalbain. 

Macb. This is a sorry sight. Looks at his hands. 20 

Lady M. A fooHsh thought, to say "a sorry sight.'' 
Mach. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried 
"Murder!" 

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard 
them. 

But they did say their prayers, and addressed them 

Again to sleep. 
Lady M. There are two lodged together. 25 

Macb. One cried '' God bless us!" and ''Amen " the 
other. 

As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 

Listening their fear, I could not say '' Amen," 

When they did say " God bless us! " 
Lady M. Consider it hot so deeply. 30 

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce " Amen " ? 

I had most need of blessing, and '' Amen " 

Stuck in my throat. 
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 

After these ways; so, it will make us mad. 
Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry " Sleep no morel 35 

Macbeth does murder sleep," — the innocent sleep, 

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, 
)^ The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, 
\A^ . Balm, of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
^y Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 
Lady M. What do you mean ? 40 

Macb. Still it cried " Sleep no more! " to all the house; — 



28 MACBETH [act h. sc. h. 

" Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor 

Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more/' 
Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy 
Thane, 

You do unbend your noble strength, to think 45 

So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 

And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 

Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 

They must lie there; go carry them, and smear 

The sleepy grooms with blood. 
Macb, I'll go no more: 50 

I am afraid to think what I have done; 

Look on 't again I dare not. 
Lady M. Infirm of purpose! 

Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead 

Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood 

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 55 

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal. 

For it must seem their guilt. 

Exit Lady Macbeth. Knock within. 
Macb. Whence is that knocking? 

How is 't with me, when every noise appals me ? 

What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes ! 

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 

Clean from my hand ? No; this my hand will rather 

The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 

Making the green one red. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. My hands are of your color, but I shame 

To wear a heart so white. {Knock ^ I hear a knocking 65 
At the south entry; retire we to our chamber; 



ACT II. sc. Ill] MACBETH 29 

A little water clears us of this deed. 

How easy is it then ! Your constancy 

Hath left you unattended. [Knock.] Hark! more 

knocking. 
Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us 70 

And show us to be watchers ; be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 
Macb. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself. 

Knock. 
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou 

couldst! Exeunt, 

Scene HI 

The Same. The South Entry. 

Enter a Porter. Knocking within. 

Porter. Here's a knocking indeed ! If a man were porter 
of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. 
[Knock.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' 
the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that 
hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty: come 5 
in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll 
sweat for 't. [Knock.] Knock, knock! Who's there, 
in th' other devil's name ? Faith, here's an equivo- 
cator, that could swear in both the scales against 
either scale; who committed treason enough for lo 
God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven; 
oh, come in, equivocator. [Knock.] Knock, knock, 
knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English 
tailor come hither, for steaHng out of a French hose; 
come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. 15 
[Knock.] Knock, knock; never at quiet! What 



30 MACBETH [act ii. sc. m. 

are you? — But this place is too cold for hell. Fll 
devil-porter it no further; I had thought to have 
let in some of all professions, that go the primrose 
way to th' everlasting bonfire. [Knock.] Anon, 20 
anon ! I pray you, remember the porter. 

Opens the gate. 

Enter Macduff and Lennox. 

Macduff. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 

That you do lie so late ? 
Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 

cock; . . . 
Macd. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. 25 

Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; but I 

requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too 

strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, 

yet I made a shift to cast him. 
Macd. Is thy master stirring? so 

Enter Macbeth. 

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes. 
Lennox. Good morrow, noble sir. 
Macbeth. Good morrow, both. 

Macd. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane ? 
Macb. Not yet. 

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him; 

I had almost slipped the hour. 
Macb. I'll bring you to him. 35 

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you; 

But yet 'tis one. 
Macb. The labor we delight in physics pain. 

This is the door. 



ACT II. sc. Ill] MACBETH 31 

Macd. ril make so bold to call, 

For 'tis my limited service. Exit Macduff, 40 

Len. Goes the King hence to-day? 

Macb. He does; he did appoint so. 

Len. The night has been unruly. Where we lay, 

Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, 
Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death. 
And prophesying, with accents terrible, 45 

Of dire combustion and confused events. 
New hatched to the woful time. The obscure bird 
Clamored the livelong night. Some say, the earth 
Was feverous and did shake. 

Macb. 'Twas a rough night. 

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel 50 

A fellow to it. 

Enter Macduff. 

Macd. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart 

Cannot conceive nor name thee! 
Macb. and Len. What's the matter? 

Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. 

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 55 

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 

The life o' the building. 
Macb. What is 't you say ? the life ? 

Len. Mean you his Majesty? 
Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 

With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak; 60 

See, and then speak yourselves. 

Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. 
Awake, awake! 

Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason! 



32 MACBETH [act h. sc. m 

Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm! awake! 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 

And look on death itself! Up, up, and see %5 

The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 

As from your graves rise up, and walk Hke sprites, 

To countenance this horror. Ring the bell. 

Bell rings. 
Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady Macbeth. What's the business ? 

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 7f 

The sleepers of the house ? Speak, speak ! 
Macd. O gentle Lady, 

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak; 

The repetition, in a woman's ear, 

Would murder as it fell. — 

Enter Banquo. 

O Banquo, Banquo I 

Our royal master's murdered. 
Lady M, Woe, alas I 7fi 

What, in our house ? 
Banquo. Too cruel anywhere. 

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself. 

And say it is not so. 

Enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross. 

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 

I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant S9 

There's nothing serious in mortality; 
All is but toys; renown and grace is dead; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 
Is left this vault to brag of. 



ACT II. sc. Ill] MACBETH 33 

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Donalbain, What is amiss ? 

Macb. You are, and do not know 't ! 85 

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped. 

Macd. "iour royal father's murdered. 

Malcolm. Oh, by whom ? 

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done 't: 

Their hands and faces were all badged with blood; 90 
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found 
Upon their pillows ; 

They stared, and were distracted; no man's life 
Was to be trusted with them. 

Macb, Oh, yet I do repent me of my fury, 95 

That I did kill them. 

Macd. Wherefore did you so ? 

Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious. 
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. 
Th' expedition of my violent love 

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, lOO 

His silver skin laced with his golden blood. 
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature 
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers. 
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers 
Unmannerly breeched with gore. — Who could re- 
frain, 105 
That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
Courage to make 's love known ? — 

Lady M. Help me hence, ho! 

Macd. Look to the lady. 

Mai. [Aside to Don.] Why do we hold our tongues, 

That most may claim this argument for ours? iiQ 



34 MACBETH [act ii. sc. hi. 

Don. [Aside to Mai.] What should be spoken here, where 
our fate, 

Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us ? 

Let's away; 

Our tears are not yet brewed. 
Mai. [Aside to Don.] Nor our strong sorrow 

Upon the foot of motion. 
Ban. Look to the lady; lis 

Lady Macbeth is carried out. 

And when we have our naked frailties hid. 

That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 

And question this most bloody piece of work. 

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. 

In the great hand of God I stand, and thence, 120 

Against the undivulged pretence I fight 

Of treasonous malice. 
Macd. And so do I, 

All. So all. 

Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness. 

And meet i' the Hall together. 
All. Well contented. 

Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. 
Mai. What will you do ? Let's not consort with them: 125 

To show an unfelt sorrow is an oflSce 

Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. 
Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune 

Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are 

There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood, i30 

The nearer bloody. 
Mai. This murderous shaft that's shot 

Hath not yet Hghted, and our safest way 

Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse; 

And let us not be dainty of leave-taking. 



ACT II. sc. IV.] MACBETH 35 

But shift away; there's warrant in that theft 135 

Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left. 

Exeunt 

Scene IV 

Outside Macbeth' s Castle. 
Enter Ross, with an old Man. 

Old Man. Threescore and ten I can remember well; 
Within the volume of which time I have seen 
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night 
Hath trifled former knowings. 

Ross. Ah, good father, 

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 5 
Threaten his bloody stage. By th' clock 'tis day, 
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. 
Is 't night's predominance, or the d.ay's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it ? 

Old M. 'Tis unnatural, lo 

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last 
A falcon towering in her pride of place 
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. 

Ross. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange and 
certain — 
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 15 

Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out. 
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
War with mankind. 

Old M. 'Tis said they eat each other. 

Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes, 
That looked upon 't. 



36 MACBETH [act ii. sc. iv. 

Enter Macduff. 

Here comes the good Macduff. 20 

How goes the world, sir, now ? 
Macdujf. Why, see you not ? 

Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed ? 
Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 
Ross. Alas, the day! 

What good could they pretend ? 
Macd. They were suborned. 

Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons, 25 

Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them 

Suspicion of the deed. 
Ross. 'Gainst nature still; — . 

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 

Thine own life's means! — Then 'tis most like 

The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone 

To be invested. 
Ross. Where is Duncan's body ? 

Macd. Carried to Colme-kill, 

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors 

And guardian of their bones. 
Ross. Will you to Scone ? 35 

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. 
Ross. Well, I will thither. 

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there, adieu ! 

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! 
Ross. Farewell, father. 
Old M. God's benison go with you, and with those 40 

That would make good of bad and friends of foes ! 

Exeunt. 



/A de^^i 



Act Third 
Scene I 

Forres. The Palace. 

Enter Banquo. 

Banquo. Thou hast it now — King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, 

As the weird women promised, and I fear 

Thou play'dst most foully for 't. Yet it was said 

It should not stand in thy posterity. 

But that myself should be the root and father 5 

Of many kings. If there come truth from them, .^ ^^J" 

As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine, ' 

Why, b^ tl^e verities on thee made good. 

May ttiey not be my oracles as well 

And set me up in hope ? But hush, no more. lo 

X-- ■- '- 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as King; Lady 

Macbeth, as Queen; Lennox, Ross, Lords, 

Ladies, and Attendants. 

Macbeth. Here's our chief guest. 

Lady Macbeth. If he had been forgotten, 

It had been as a gap in our great feast. 

And all-thing unbecoming. ^ . 
Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 

And V\\ request your presence. 
Ban. Let your Highness i5 

Command upon me, to the which my duties 



38 MACBETH [act m. sc. i. 

Are with a most indissoluble tie 
Forever knit. 

Macb. Ride you this afternoon ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord. ^^....^a^^^^"^ 

Macb. We should have else desired your good advice^ 20 

Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 
In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow. 
Is 't far you ride ? 

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time -jj^ 

'Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better, 25 
I must become a borrower of the night 
For a dark hour or twain. 

Macb. Fail not our feast. 

Ban. My lord, I will not. /^^«— ^ JT fu - '*'^ 

Macb. We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed 

In England and in Ireland, not confessing 30 « 

Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 

With strange invention ; but of that to-morrow, 

When therewithal we shall have cause of state 

Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse; adieu, 

Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 35 

Ban. Ay, my good lord; our time does call upon 's. 

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot. 
And so I do commend you to their backs. 
Farewell. — Exit Banquo. 

Let every man be master of his time 40 

Till seven at night; to make society 
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
Till supper-time alone; while then, God be with 
you ! — Exeunt all but Macbeth and a Servant. 
Sirrah, a word with you; attend those men 
Our pleasure ? 45 



ACT III. sc. i] MACBETH 39 

Servant. They are, my lord, without the Palace-gate. 

Macb, Bring them before us. — Exit Servant. 

To be thus is nothing: 
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo 
Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature 
Reigns that which would be feared. 'Tis much he dares, 50 
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind. 
He hath a wisdo-m that doth guide his valor 
To act in safety. There is none but he 
Whose being I do fear; and under him 
My genius is rebuked, as it is said 55 

Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the Sisters, 
When first they put the name of King upon me. 
And bade them speak to him ; then prophet-Uke 
They hailed him father to a line of kings : 
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 60 

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, ' ./ . 
Thence to be wrenched with an ilnHheal hand, 
No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so. 
For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; 
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered; 65 

Put rancors in the vessel of my peace. 
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel 
Given to the common Enemy of Man, 
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! 
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list, 70 

And champion me to th' utiterance ! — Who's there ? 

Enter Servant, with two Murderers. 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.— 

Exit Servant, 
Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 



40 MACBETH [act m. sc. i. 

First Murderer. It was, so please your Highness. 

Mach. Well then, now 

Have you considered of my speeches ? — know 75 

That it was he in the times past which held you 

So under fortune, which you thought had been 

Our innocent self? This I made good.to you 

In our last conference; passed in probation with you. 

How you were borne in hand^. how crossed, the in^^^ 

struments, ' "^^ 'V - ^^ -'' r^-- ^^^ so 

Who wrought with them, and all things else that 

might 
To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
Say, " Thus did Banquo/' 

First Mur. You made it known to us. 

Mach. I did so; and went further, which is now 

Our point of second meeting. Do you find 85 

Your patience so predominant in your natpre,^ ^Lj^.i^ -tU 
That you can let this go ? Are you so gospelled, ^ 

To pray for this good man and for his issue. 
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave 
And beggared yours forever ? 

First Mur. , ^ We are men, my liege. 90 

Mach. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; 

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 

Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are clept 

All by the name of dogs. The valued file 

Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 95 

The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 

According to the gift which bounteous nature 

Ha(,th in him closed, whereby he does receive 

Particular addition, from the bill 

That writes them all alike; and so of men. lOO 



iCT III. sc. I] MACBETH , 41 

Now, if you have a station in the file, 

Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't. 

And I will put that business in your bosoms 

Whose execution takes your enemy off. 

Grapples you to the heart and love of us, i05 

Who wear our health but sickly iii his life, 

Which in his death were perfect. 

Second Murderer. I am one, my liege. 

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what 
I do to spite the world. 

First Mur, And I another no 

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, 
That I would se^ my life on any chance, 
To mend it or be rid on 't. 

Mach. Both of you 

Know Banquo was your enemy. 

Both Mur, True, my lord. 

Mach. So is he mine; and in such bloody distance ii5 

That every minute pf his being thrusts 
Against my near'st of life; and though I could 
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not. 
For certain friends that are both his and mine, 120 

Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
Who I myself struck down; and thence it is 
That I to your assistance do make love. 
Masking the business from the common eye 
For sundry weighty reasons. 

Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord, 125 

Perform what you command us. 

First Mur. Though our lives — 



42 MACBETH [act hi. sc. ii. 

Macb, Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour 
at most 
I will advise you where to plant yourselves, 
Acquaint you With the perfect spy o' the time, — 
The momen^t on 't; for 't must be done to-night, 130 

And something from the Palace; always thought 
That I require a clearness ; and with him — 
To leave no rubs nor botches in the work — 
Fleance, his son, that keeps him company. 
Whose absence is no less material to me 135 

Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart; 
ril come to you anon. 

Both Mur. We are resolved, my lord. 

Macb, ril call upon you straight; abide within. — 

Exeunt Murderers. 
It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, 140 

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. Exit, 



Scene II 

The Same, 

Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 

Lady Macbeth, Is Banquo gone from court ? 
Servant, Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 
Lady M. Say to the King, I would attend his leisure 

For a few words. 
Serv, Madam, I will. Exit, 

Lady M, Naught's had, all's spent, -yV-^ 

Where our desire is got without content; 4^* ^/^^^ 

^^ 



ACT III. sc. II.] MACBETH 43 

'Tis safer to be that which we destroy 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. — 

Enter Macbeth. 

How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 
Of sorriest fancies your companions making; 
l/sing those thoughts which should indeed have ^ 

died 10 

With them they think on ? Things without all rem- 
edy 
Should be without regard; what's done is done. 

Macbeth. We have scorched the snake, not killed it : 
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
Remains in danger of her former tooth. 15 

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds 

suffer, 
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, 
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 20 

Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; 
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 25 

Can touch him further. 

Lady M, Come on; ..y 

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks; 
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 

Macb. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you. 

Let your remembrance apply to Banquo; 30 

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue; 



m MACBETH [ACT m. sc. ii. 

Unsafe the while, that we 

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams, 

And make our faces vizards to our hearts, 

Disguising what they are. 
Lady M. You must leave this. 35 

Macb, O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! 

Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 
Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne. 
Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable. 

Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown 40 

His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's sum- 
mons 

The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums 

Hath rung night's ystwniiig peal, there shall be 
done 

A deed of dreadful note. 
Lady M. What's to be done ? 

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 45 

Till thou applaud the deed. — Come, seeling nightf^*-^^^ 

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, 

And with thy bloody and invisible hand 

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 

Which keeps me paled! — Light thickens, and the 

crow 50 

Makes wing to th' rooky wood; 

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse. 

Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. — 

Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; 

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill : 55 

So, prithee, go with me. Exeunt. 



ACT III. sc. Ill] MACBETH 45 

Scene III 

An Approach to the Palace. The Palace at a Distance. 

Enter three Murderers. 

First Murderer. But who did bid thee join with us ? 
Third Murderer. Macbeth. 

Second Murderer. He needs not our mistrust ; since he de- 
livers 

Our offices, and what we have to do, 

To the direction just. 
First Mur. Then stand with us. — 

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day. 6 

Now spurs the lated traveller apace 

To gain the timely inn, and near approaches . 

The subject of our watch. 
Third Mur. Hark! I hear horses. 

Banquo. [Within] Give us a light there, ho ! 
Sec. Mur. ' Then 'tis he. The rest 

That are within the note of expectation lo 

Already are i' the court. 
First Mur. His horses go about. 

Third Mur. Almost a mile; but he does usually — 

So all men do — from hence to th' Palace-gate 

Make it their walk. 

Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch. 

Sec. Mur. A light, a light! 

Third Mur. 'Tis he. 

First Mur. Stand to 't. is 

Banquo. It will be rain to-night. 



46 MACBETH [act m. sc. iv. 

First Mur, Let it come down. 

They set upon Banquo. 
Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! 
Thou mayst revenge. O slave! 

Dies. Fleance escapes. 
Third Mur. Who did strike out the light? ,.,.^ - 

First Mur. Was 't not the way ? ^ 

Third Mur. There's but one down; the son is fled. 
Sec. Mur. We have lost 20 

Best half of our affair. 
First Mur. Well, let's away and say how much is done. 

Exeunt. 

Scene IV 

The Hall of the Palace. 

A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, 
Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. 

Macbeth. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at first 

And last the hearty welcome. 
Lords. Thanks to your Majesty. 

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society 

And play the humble host. 

Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 6 

We will require her welcome. 
Lady Macbeth. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends. 

For my heart speaks they are welcome. 

Enter first Murderer to the door. 

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks. — 
Both sides are even; here FU sit i' the midst. 10 

Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure 



ACT III. sc. IV.] MACBETH 47 

The table round. — [Approaching the door] There's 
blood upon thy face. 
Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then. 
Macb. 'Tis better thee without than he within. 

Is he despatched ? 15 

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. 
Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats; yet he's good 

That did the like for Fleance; if thou didst it, 

Thou art the nonpareil. 
Mur. Most royal sir, 

Fleance is 'scaped. 20 

Macb. [Aside] Then comes my fit again; I had else been 
perfect, 

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 

As broad and general as the casing air; 

But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in 

To saucy doubts and fears. — But Banquo's safe? 25 

Mur. Ay, my good lord ; safe in a ditch he bides, 

With twenty trenched gashes on his head, 

The least a death to nature. 
Macb. Thanks for that. — 

[Aside] There the grown serpent lies; the worm 
that's fled 

Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 

No teeth for the present. — Get thee gone: to-morrow 

We'll hear ourselves again. Exit Murderer. 

Lady M. My royal. lord. 

You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold 

That is not often vouched, while 'tis a-making, 

'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home; 35 

From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony; 

Meeting were bare without it. 



48 MACBETH [act m. sc. iv. 

Macb. Sweet remembrancer! — 

Now good digestion wait on appetite, 

And health on both! 
Lennox, May 't please your Highness sit. 

The Ghost of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth' s place. 
Macb. Here had we now our country's honor roofed, 40 

Were the graced person of our Banquo present; 

Who, may I rather challenge for unkindness 

Than pity for mischance! 
Ross. His absence, sir, 

Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your High- 
ness 

To grace us with your royal company. 45 

Macb. The table's full. 

Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 

Macb. Where? 
Len. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves your 

Highness ? 
Macb. Which of you have done this ? 
Lords. What, my good lord ? 

Macb. Thou canst not say I did it; never shake 50 

Thy gory locks at me. 
Ross. Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is not well. 
Lady M. Sit, worthy friends; my lord is often thus, 

And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat; 

The fit is momentary; upon a thought 55 

He will again, be well. If much you note him. 

You shall offend him and extend his passion; 

Feed, and regard him not. — Are you a man ? 
Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 

Which might appal the devil. 
Lady M. O proper stuff! 60 



ACT III. sc. IV.] MACBETH 49 

This is the very painting of your fear; 

This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, 

Impostors to true fear, would well become 

A woman's story at a winter's fire, 65 

Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself! 

Why do you make such faces ? When all 's done. 

You look but on a stool. 

Macb, Prithee, see there! Behold! look! lo! How say 
you?— 
Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. — 70 
If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, our monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites. Exit Ghost. 

Lady M. W^hat, quite unmanned in folly? 

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. 

Lady M. Fie, for shame! 

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, 75 
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; 
Ay, and since too, murders have been performed 
Too terrible for the ear. The time has been. 
That, when the brains were out, the man would 

die. 
And there an end; but now they rise again, so 

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns. 
And push us from our stools. This is more strange 
Than such a murder is. 

Lady M. My worthy lord, 

Your noble friends do lack you. 

Macb. I do forget. — 

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends; 85 

I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 



50 MACBETH [act m. sc. iv. 

To those that know me. Come, love and health to all ! 
Then I'll sit down. — Give me some wine, fill full; — 

Enter the Ghost of Banquo. 

I drink to the general joy o' the whole table. 

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss. 90 

Would he were here! to all and him we thirst, 

And all to all! 
Lords. Our duties, and the pledge! 

Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! 

Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; 

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 95 

Which thou dost glare with. 
Lady M, Think of this, good peers, 

But as a thing of custom; 'tis no other; 

Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 
Macb. What man dare, I dare: 

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, lOO 

The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; 

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 

Shall never tremble. Or be alive again. 

And dare me to the desert with thy sword; 

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 105 

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! 

Unreal mockery, hence! — Exit Ghost. 

Why, so, being gone, 

I am a man again. — Pray you, sit still. 
Lady M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good 
meeting. 

With most admired disorder. 
Macb. Can such things be, no 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 



ACT III. sc. IV.] MACBETH 51 

Without our special wonder ? You make me strange 

Even to the disposition that I owe, 

When now I think you can behold such sights, 

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, ii5 

When mine is blanched with fear. 
Ross. What sights, my lord ? 

Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and 
worse; 

Question enrages him; at once, good night. 

Stand not upon the order of your going. 

But go at once. 
Len. Good night; and better health 120 

Attend his Majesty! 
Lady M. A kind good night to all! 

Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. 
Macb. It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. 

Stones have been known to move and trees to speak ; 

Augurs and understood relations have 

By maggot-pies, and choughs, and rooks brought 

forth 125 

The secret'st man of blood. What is the night? 
Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. 
Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person 

At our great bidding ? 
Lady M. Did you send to him, sir? 

Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send. 130 

There's not a one of them but in his house 

I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow. 

And betimes I will, to the weird Sisters. 

More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know. 

By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good i35 

All causes shall give way. I am in blood 



52 MACBETH [act m. sc. v. 

Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, 

Returning were as tedious as go o'er. 

Strange things I have in head that will to hand, 

Which must be acted ere they may be scanned. 140 

Lady M, You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 
Mach, Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self -abuse 

Is the initiate fear that wants hard use; 

We are yet but young in deed. Exeunt, 



Scene V 

A Heath 

Thunder. Enter the Three Witches, meeting Hecate. 

First Witch, Why, how now, Hecate, you look angerly! 
Hecate. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, 

Saucy and overbold ? How did you dare 

To trade and traffic with Macbeth 

In riddles and affairs of death; 5 

And I, the mistress of your charms, C 

The close contriver of all harms. 

Was never called to bear my part, 

Or show the glory of our art ? 

And, which is worse, all you have done lo 

Hath been but for a wayward son, 

Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do, 

Loves- for his own ends, not for you. 

But make amends now: get you gone. 

And at the pit of Acheron 15 

Meet me i' the morning. Thither he 

Will come to know his destiny: 

Your vessels and your spells provide, 



ACT III. sc. VI.] MACBETH 53 

Your charms and everything beside. 

I am for th* air; this night I'll spend 20 

Unto a dismal and a fatal end. 

Great business must be wrought ere noon. 

Upon the corner of the moon 

There hangs a vaporous drop, profound; 

ril catch it ere it come to ground; 25 

And that distilled by magic sleights 

Shall raise such artificial sprites 

As by the strength of their illusion 

Shall draw him on to his confusion. 

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30 

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear; 

And you all know security 

Is mortals' chiefest enemy. 

[Music and a song within.] 

Hark! I am called; my little spirit, see. 

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. Exit. 35 

[Sing within: ^^Come away, come away^^ etc.] 

First Witch. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back 

again. Exeunt, 

Scene VI 

Forres. The Palace. 

Enter Lennox and another Lord. 

Lennox. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, 
Which can interpret farther. Only I say 
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious 

Duncan 
Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead; 



54 MACBETH [act m. sc. vi. 

And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late; 5 

Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance killed, 
For Fleance fled; men must not walk too late. 
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous 
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
To kill their gracious father ? Damned fact ! lo 

How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight, 
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear, 
That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep ? 
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too; 
For 'twould have angered any heart alive is 

To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say, 
He has borne all things well; and I do think 
That, had he Duncan's sons under his key — 
As, an 't please heaven, he shall not — they should find 
What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance. 20 

But, peace ! for from broad words, and 'cause he failed 
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear, 
Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell 
Where he bestows himself? 
Lord, The son of Duncan, 

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 25 

Lives in the English court, and is received 

Of the most pious Edward with such grace 

That the malevolence of fortune nothing 

Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff 

Is gone to pray the Holy King, upon his aid so 

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward, 

That by the help of these, with Him above 

To ratify the work, we may again 

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 

Free from our feasts and banquets blQody knives, 35 



ACT III. sc. VI.] MACBETH 55 

Do faithful homage and receive free honors; 
All which we pine for now. And this report 
Hath so exasperate the King that he 
Prepares for some attempt of war. 

Lett. Sent he to Macduff? 

Lord. He did: and with an absolute " Sir, not I," 40 

The cloudy messenger turns me his back, 
And hums, as who should say, '' You'll rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer." 

Len, And that well might 

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 45 

Fly to the court of England and unfold 
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
May soon return to this our suffering country 
Under a hand accursed! ^^^-^-. — 

Lord. I'll send my prayers with him. 

Exeunt 



Act Fourth 

Scene I 

Entrance to a Cavern, In the middle, a boiling Caldron, 

Thunder. Enter the Three Witches. 

First Witch. Thrice the brindled cat hath mewed. 
Second Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. 
Third Witch. Harpier cries, '' 'Tis time, 'tis time." 
First Witch. Round about the caldron go : 

In the poisoned entrails throw. 5 

Toad, that under cold stone 

Days and nights has thirty-one 

Sweltered venom sleeping got, 

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 
All. Double, double toil and trouble; lo 

Fire burn and caldron bubble. 
Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 

In the caldron boil and bake; 

Eye of newt and toe of frog, 

Wool of bat and tongue of dog; is 

Adder's fork and bhnd-worm's sting. 

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing; 

For a charm of powerful trouble. 

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 
All. Double, double toil and trouble; 20 

Fire burn and caldron bubble. 

56 



ACT IV. sc. I ] MACBETH 57 

Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 

Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 

Of the ravined salt-sea shark. 

Root of hemlock digged i' the dark, 25 

Liver of blaspheming Jew, 

Gall of goat and slips of yew, 

Slivered in the moon's eclipse. 

Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 

Finger of birth-strangled babe, 30 

Ditch-delivered by a drab, 

Make the gruel thick and slab. 

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron. 

For th' ingredients of our caldron. 
All, Double, double toil and trouble; 35 

Fire burn and caldron bubble. 
Sec. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood. 

Then the charm is firm and good. 

Enter Hecate to the other Three Witches. 

Hecate. O, well done! I commend your pains; 

And every one shall share i' the gains: 40 

And now about the caldron sing. 

Like elves and fairies in a ring, 

Enchanting all that you put in. 

[Music and a song: ^^Black spirits/' etc.] Hecate vanishes. 
Sec. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 

Something wicked this way comes: — 45 

Open, locks, 

Whoever knocks! 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macbeth. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags ! 
What is 't you do ? 



58 MACBETH [act iv. sc. i. 

All, A deed without a name. 

Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 50 

Howe'er you come to know it, answer me; 

Though you untie the winds and let them fight 

Against the churches; though the yesty waves 

Confound and swallow navigation up; 

Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 55 

Though castles topple on their warders' heads; 

Though palaces and pyramids do slope 

Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 

Of nature's germins tumble all together, 

Even till destruction sicken; answer me 60 

To what I ask you. 
First Witch, Speak. 

Sec. Witch, Demand. 

Third Witch. We'll answer. 

First Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from our 
mouths. 

Or from our masters ? 
Macb. Call 'em, let me see 'em. 

First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 

Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten 65 

From the murderer's gibbet throw 

Into the flame. 
All. Come, high or low; 

Thyself and office deftly show! 

Thunder. First Apparition — an Armed Head, 
Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power — 
First Witch. He knows thy thought; 

Hear his speech, but say thou naught. 70 

First Apparition. ^ldiQbei\i\ Macbeth! Macbeth ! beware 
Macduff; 



ACT IV. 8c. I] MACBETH 59 

Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me; enough. 

Descends, 
Mach. Whatever thou art, for thy good caution thanks; 

Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word 
more — 
First Witch, He will not be commanded. Here's another, 75 

More potent than the first. 
Thunder. Second Apparition — a Bloody Child. 
Sec.App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! 
Macb. Had I three ears, I 'Id hear thee. 
Sec, App, Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn 

The power of man; for none of woman born so 

Shall harm Macbeth. Descends, 

Mach. Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee? 

But yet ril make assurance doubly sure, 

And take a bond of fate; thou shalt not live; 

That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 85 

And sleep in spite of thunder. 
Thunder. Third Apparition — a Child Crowned^ with a 
tree in his hand. 

What is this, 

That rises like the issue of a king. 

And wears upon his baby brow the round 

And top of sovereignty? 
All. Listen, but speak not to 'f. 

Third App. Be Kon-mettled, proud, and take no care 90 

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are; 

Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until 

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill 

Shall come against him. Descends, 

Macb. That will never be. 

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 95 



60 MACBETH [act iv. sc. i. 

Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good I 

Rebellion's head, rise never, till the Wood 

Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 

Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 

To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart lOO 

Throbs to know one thing. — Tell me, if your art 

Can tell so much: Shall Banquo's issue ever 

Reign in this Kingdom? 

All. Seek to know no more. 

Macb. I will be satisfied. Deny me this, 

And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know, 105 
Why sinks that caldron ? and what noise is this ? 

Hautboys. 

First Witch, Show! 

Sec. Witch. Show! 

Third Witch. Show! 

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; no 

Come like shadows, so depart! 

A show of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; 
Banquo's Ghost following. 

Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! 
Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. — And thy hair, 
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. — 
A third is like the former. — Filthy hags! lis 

Why do you show me this ? — A fourth ! — Start, eyes ! — 
What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom ? — 
Another yet! — A seventh I — I'll see no more. — 
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
Which shows me many more; and some I see 120 

That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry. 
Horrible sight! — Now I see 'tis true; 



ACT IV. sc. I] MACBETH 61 

For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me. 

And points at them for his. — What, is this so ? 
First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so. But why 125 

Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 

Come, Sisters, cheer we up his sprites. 

And show the best of our delights. 

ril charm the air to give a sound, 

While you perform your antique round, 130 

That this great King may kindly say 

Our duties did his welcome pay. 

Music, The Witches dance and vanish. 
Macb. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this pernicious hour 

Stand aye accursed in the calendar! — 

Come in, without there! 

Enter Lennox. 

Lennox. What's your grace's will ? 135 

Macb. Saw you the weird Sisters ? 

Len. No, my lord. 

Macb. Came they not by you? 

Len. No indeed, my lord. 

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride. 

And damned all those that trust them! — I did hear 
The galloping of horse. Who was 't came by ? i40 

Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word 
Macduff is fled to England. 

Macb. Fled to England! 

Len. Ay, my good lord. 

Macb. [Aside] Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits. 

The flighty purpose never is overtook 145 

Unless the deed go with it. From this moment 
The very firstlings of my heart shall be 



62 MACBETH [act iv. sc. ii. 

The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and 

done: 
The castle of Macduff I will surprise; 150 

Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword 
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
That trace him in his line. No boasting like 

a fool; 
This deed I'll do before this purpose cool. 
But no more sights! — Where are these gentlemen ? 155 
Come, bring me where they are. Exeunt. 



Scene H 

Fife. Macduff's Castle, 
Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 

Lady Macduff. What had he done, to make him fly the 
land? 

Ross. You must have patience, madam. 

L. Macd. He had none; 

His flight was madness. When our actions do not, 
Our fears do make us traitors. 

Ross. You know not 

Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 6 

L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his babes. 
His mansion and his titles, in a place 
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; 
He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren, 
The most diminutive of birds, will fight, lo 

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
All is the fear, and nothing is the love; 



ACT IV. sc. II.] MACBETH 63 

As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
So runs against all reason. 

Ross. My dearest coz, 

I pray you, school yourself. But, for your husband, 15 

He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 

The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further: 

But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 

And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor 

From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 

But float upon a wild and violent sea 

Each way and move. I take my leave of you; 

Shall not be long but I'll be here again. 

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 

To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 25 

Blessing upon you! 

L. Macd. Fathered he is, and yet he's fatherless. 

Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort; 
I take my leave at once. Exit. 

L. Macd. Sirrah, your father's dead : 30 

And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 

Son. As birds do, mother. 

L. Macd. What, with worms and flies ? 

Son. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. 

L. Macd. Poor bird ! thou 'Idst never fear the net nor lime, 

The pitfall nor the gin. 35 

Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not 
set for. 
My father is not dead, for all your saying. 

L. Macd. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father? 

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 

L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. 40 



64 MACBETH [act iv. sc. ii 

Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. 

L. Macd. Thou speak' st with all thy wit, and yet, i' faith, 

With wit enough for thee. 
Son. Was my father a traitor, mother ? 

L. Macd. Ay, that he was. 45 

Son. What is a traitor? 
L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. 
Son. And be all traitors that do so ? 
L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must 

be hanged. 50 

Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie ? 
L. Macd. Every one. 
Son. W^ho must hang them ? 
L. Macd. Why, the honest men. 
Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools; for there are 55 

liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and 

hang up them. 
L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! 

But how wilt thou do for a father? 
Son. If he were dead, you 'Id weep for him; if you would 60 

not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have 

a new father. 
L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st! 

Enter a Messenger. 

Messenger. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, 

Though in your state of honor I am perfect. 65 

I doubt some danger does approach you nearly; 

If you will take a homely man's advice. 

Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. 

To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage; 

To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 70 



ACT IV. sc. Ill] MACBETH 65 

Which is too nigh your person . Heaven preserve you ! 
I dare abide no longer. Exit 

L. Macd. Whither should I fly? 

I have done no harm. But I remember now 
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm 
Is often laudable, to do good sometime 75 

Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, 
Do I put up that womanly defence. 
To say I have done no harm ? — What are these faces ? 

Enter Murderers. 

First Murderer, Where is your husband ? 

L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified 80 

Where such as thou mayst*find him. 
First Mur. He's a traitor. 

Son. Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain ! 
First Mur. What, you egg ! 

Stabbing him. 

Young fry of treachery ! 

Son. He has killed me, mother. 

Run away, I pray you! Dies. 

Exit Lady Macduff, crying ^^ Murder ! " 

Exeunt Murderers, following Iter, 

Scene IH 

England. Before the King^s Palace. 
Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 

Malcolm. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 

Weep our sad bosoms empty. 
Macduff. Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword, and Hke good men 



66 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m. 

Bestride our down-fairn birthdom. Each new morn 
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 5 

Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out 
Like syllable of dolor. 

Mai. What I believe, Til wail; 

What know, believe; and what I can redress. 
As 1 shall find the time to friend, I will. lo 

What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues. 
Was once thought honest; you have loved him well; • 
He hath not touched you yet. I am young; but 

something 
You may deserve of him tfirough me; and wisdom 15 
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb 
To appease an angry god. 

Macd. I am not treacherous. 

Mai. But Macbeth is. 

A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; 20 
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose. 
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; 
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace. 
Yet grace must still look so. 

Macd. I have lost my hopes. 

Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. 25 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child. 
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
Without leave-taking ? I pray you. 
Let not my jealousies be your dishonors. 
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, so 

Whatever I shall think. 



ACT IV. sc. Ill] MACBETH 67 

Macd. Bleed, bleed, j)oor country! 

Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, 
For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy 

wrongs ; 
The title is affeered. — Fare thee well, lord; 
I would not be the villain that thou think'st 35 

For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp, 
And the rich East to boot. 

MaL Be not offended; 

I speak not as in absolute fear of you., 
I think our country sinks beneath theVoke: 
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day k gash 40 

Is added to her wounds. I think withal 
There would be hands uplifted in my right; 
And here from gracious England have I offer 
Of goodly thousands. But for all this, 
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head 
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 45 

Shall have more vices than it had before, 
More suffer, and more sundry ways, than ever, 
By him that shall succeed. 

Macd, What should he be? 

MaL It is myself I mean: in whom I know 50 

All the particulars of vice so grafted 
That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth 
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 
With my confineless harms. 

Macd. Not in the legions 65 

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned 
In evils to top Macbeth. 

MaL I grant him bloody, 



68 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m. 

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful. 

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 

That has a name. But there's no bottom, none, 60 

In my voluptuousness : your wives, your daughters, 

Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up 

The cistern of my lust, and my desire 

All continent impediments would overbear, 

That did oppose my will; — better Macbeth 65 

Than such an one to reign. 

Macd. Boundless intemperance 

In nature is a tyranny; it hath been 
The untimely emptying of the happy throne 
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
To take upon you what is yours; you may 70 

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty. 
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 
We have willing dames enough; there cannot be 
That vulture in you, to devour so many 
As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 75 

Finding it so inchned. 

Mai. With this there grows 

In my most ill-composed affection such 
A stanchless avarice that, were I King, 
I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 
Desire his jewels and this other's house: so 

And my more-having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more, that I should forge 
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
Destroying them for wealth. 

Macd. This avarice 

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 85 

Than summer-seeming lust; and it hath been 



ACT IV. sc. Ill] MACBETH 69 

The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear; 

Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will 

Of your mere own. All these are portable, 

With other graces weighed. 90 

Mai. But I have none. The king-becoming graces, 
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness. 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
I have no relish of them, but abound 95 

In the division of each several crime. 
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell. 
Uproar the universal peace, confound 
All unity on earth. 

Macd. O Scotland, Scotland! lOO 

Mai. If such a one be fit to govern, speak; 
I am as I have spoken. 

Macd. Fit to govern! 

No, not to live. — O nation miserable! 
With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptred. 
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, los 

Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
By his own interdiction stands accused. 
And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
Was a most sainted King; the Queen that bore thee, 
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, no 

Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! 
These evils thou repeat' st upon thyself 
Have banished me from Scotland. — O my breast, 
Thy hope ends here! 

Mai. Macduff, this noble passion. 

Child of integrity, hath from my soul lis 



70 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m 

Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 
To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth 
By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me 
From over-credulous haste: but God above 120 

Deal between thee and me! for even now 
I put myself to thy direction, and 
Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure 
The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
For strangers to my nature. I am yet 125 

Unknown to woman, never was forsWbrn, 
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, 
At no time broke my faith, would not betray 
The devil to his fellow, and delight 
No less in truth than life. My first false speaking 130 
Was this upon myself. What I am truly. 
Is thine and my poor country's to command; 
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, 
Already at a point, was setting forth. 135 

Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness 
Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 
Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 
'Tis hard to reconcile. 

Enter an English Doctor. 

Mai. Wen, more anon. Comes the King forth, I pray you ? 140 
Doctor. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure; their malady convinces 
The great assay of art. But at his touch, 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, 
They presently amend. 



ACT IV. sc. Ill] MACBETH 71 

MaL I thank you, doctor. 145 

Exit Doctor. 

Macd, What's the disease he means ? 

MaL 'Tis called the evil, — 

A most miraculous work in this good King, 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven. 
Himself best knows; but strangely- visited people, 150 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye. 
The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Put on with holy prayers; and 'tis spoken, 
To the succeeding royalty he leaves 155 

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue 
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
And sundry blessings hang about his throne 
That speak him full of grace. 

Enter Ross. 

Macd. See, who comes here? 

Mai. My countryman; but yet I know him not. I60 

Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 

Mai. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 
The means that makes us strangers! 

Ross. Sir, amen. 

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? 

Ross. Alas, poor country ! 

Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot X65 

Be called our mother, but our grave; where nothing. 
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; 
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air, 
Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems 



72 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m. 

A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell 1.70 

Is there scarce asked for who; and good men's lives 

Expire before the flowers in their caps, 

Dying or ere they sicken. . ^ . 

Macd. O, relation 

Too nice, and yet too true! 
MaL What's the newest grief ? 

Ross. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; 175 

Each minute teems a new one. 
Macd. How does my wife ? 

Ross. Why, well. 

Macd. And all my children ? 

Ross. Well, too. 

Macd. The tyrant has not battered at their peace ? 
Ross. No; they were well at peace when I did leave 

'em. 
Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech; how goes 't? I80 

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 

Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor 

Of many worthy fellows that were out; 

Which was to my belief witnessed the rather, 

For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot. 185 

Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland 

Woula create soldiers, make our women fight. 

To doff their dire distresses. 
Mai. Be 't their comfort 

We are coming thither. Gracious England hath 

Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; 190 

An older and a better soldier none 

That Christendom gives out. 
Ross. Would I could answer 

This comfort with the like! But I have words 



ACT IV. sc. Ill] MACBETH 73 

That would be howled out in the desert air, 

Where hearing should not latch them. 
Macd. What concern they ? 195 

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 

Due to some single breast? 
Ross, No mind that's honest 

But in it shares some woe, though the main part 

Pertains to you alone. 
Macd, If it be mine, 

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 

Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue forever. 

Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 

That ever yet they heard. 
Macd. Hum! I guess at it. 

Ross. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes 

Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner, 205 

Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer. 

To add the death of you. 
MaL Merciful heaven! — 

What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows. 

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak 

Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break. 210 
Macd. My children too? 
Ross. Wife, children, servants, all 

That could be found. 
Macd. And I must be from thence! 

My wife killed too ? 
Ross. I have said. 

MaL Be comforted; 

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, 

To cure this deadly grief. 215 

Macd. He has no children. — All my pretty ones? — 



74 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m. 

Did you say all?— O hell-kite!— All? 
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
At one fell swoop ? 

MaL Dispute it like a man. 

Macd. I shall do so; 220 

But I must also feel it as a man; 
I cannot but remember such things were 
That were most precious to me. — Did heaven look on. 
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, 
They were all struck for thee ! Naught that I a^i, 225 
Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now! — 

Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword ; let grief 
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 

Macd. Oh, I could play the woman with mine eyes, 230 

And braggart with my tongue! — But, gentle heavens 
Cut short all intermission; front to front 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too! — 

Mat. This tune goes manly. 235 

Come, go we to the King; our power is ready; 
Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth 
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you 

may; 
The night is long that never finds the day. 240 

Exeunt. 



Act Fifth 
Scene I 

Dunsinane. Ante-room in the Castle, 

Enter a Scottish Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentle- 
woman. 

Doctor, I have two nights watched with you, but can 
perceive no truth in your report. When was it she 
last walked? 

Gentlewoman. Since his Majesty went into the field, 1 

have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night- 6 
gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, 
fold it, write upon 't, read it, afterwards seal it,*and 
again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast 
sleep. 

Doct, A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once lo 
the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! 
In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and 
other actual performances, what, at any time, have 
you heard her say ? 

Gentlew. That, sir, which I will not report after her. i5 

Doct. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should. 

Gentlew. Neither to you nor any one, having no witness 
to confirm my speech. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, vriih a taper. 

Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise, and, 
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close. 20 

75 



76 MACBETH [act v. sc. i. 

Doct. How came she by that Hght ? 

Gentlew. Why, it stood by her. She has Ught by her 
continually; 'tis her command. 

Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 

Gentlew. Ay, but their sense is shut. 25 

DocL What is it she does now ? Look, how she rubs her 
hands. 

Gentlew. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem 
thus washing her hands. I have known her con- 
tinue in this a quarter of an hour. 30 

Lady Macbeth. Yet here's a spot. 

Doct. Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes 
from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more 
strongly. 

LadyM. Out, damned spot! out, 1 say! — One; two: why, 35 
then 'tis time to do 't. — Hell is murky. — Fie, my 
lord, fie ! a soldier, and af card ? What need we fear 
who knows it, when none can call our power to ac- 
compt? — Yet who would have thought the old man 
to have had so much blood in him ? 40 

Doct. Do you mark that? 

LadyM. The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she 
now? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean? — No 
more o' that, my lord, no more o' that; you mar all 
with this starting. 45 

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. 

Gentlew. She has spoke what she should not, I am 
sure of that; heaven knows what she has known. 

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still; all the per- 
fumes of Arabia will not sweeten this Uttle hand. 50 
Oh, oh, oh! 

Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. 



ACT V. 8c. I] MACBETH 77 

Gentlew. I would not have such a heart in my bosom 
for the dignity of the whole body. 

Doct Well, well, well! 55 

Gentlew. Pray God it be, sir. 

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice; yet I have 
known those which have walked in their sleep who 
have died holily in their beds. 

Lady M. Wash your hands; put on your nightgown. — 60 
Look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo's 
buried; he cannot come out on 's grave. 

Doct. Even so? 

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. 

Come, come, come, come, give me your hand ; what's 65 
done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed. 

Exit. 

Doct. Will she go now to bed ? 

Gentlew. Directly. 

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds 

Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds 70 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets: 
More needs she the divine than the physician. — 
God, God forgive us all! — Look after her; 
Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. So good night. 75 

My mind she has mated and amazed my sight; 
I think, but dare not speak. 

Gentlew. Good night, good doctor. 

Exeunt. 



78 MACBETH [act v. sc. ii. 

Scene II 

The Country near Dunsinane. 

Drum and colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 
Lennox, and Soldiers. 

Menteith. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 

His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. 

Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes 

Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 

Excite the mortified man. 
Angus. Near Birnam Wood 6 

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. 
Caithness. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother? 
Lennox. For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file 

Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son, 

And many unrough youths, that even now lo 

Protest their first of manhood. 
Ment. What does the tyrant ? 

Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. 

Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate him, 

Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain. 

He cannot buckle his distempered cause 15 

W^ithin the belt of rule. 
Ang. Now does he feel 

His secret murders sticking on his hands; 

Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; 

Those he commands move only in command. 

Nothing in love; now does he feel his title 20 

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 

Upon a dwarfish thief. 



ACT V. sc. Ill] MACBETH 79 

Ment. Who then shall blame 

His pestered senses to recoil and start, 

When all that is within him does condemn 

Itself for being there ? 
Caith. Well, march we on, 25 

To give obedience where 'tis truly owed. 

Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal. 

And with him pour we, in our country's purge, 

Each drop of us. 
Len. Or so much as it needs 

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 

Make we our march towards Birnam. 

Exeunt, marching. 

Scene HI 

Dunsinane. Within the Castle, 

Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 

Macbeth. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all; 
Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane 
I cannot taint with fear. W^hat's the boy Malcolm ? 
Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 5 
''Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman 
Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false 

Thanes, 
And mingle with the English epicures; 
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. — 10 

Enter a Servant. 

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! 
Where got'st thou that goose look ? 



80 MACBETH [act v. sc. m. 

Servant. There is ten thousand — 

Mach. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Macb. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, 

Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch ! 15 

Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine 

Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face! 

Serv. The English force, so please you. 

Macb. Take thy face hence. — Exit Servant. 

Seyton! — I am sick at heart. 
When I behold — Seyton, I say! — This push 20 

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. 
I have lived long enough: my way of life 
Is fairn into the sear, the yellow leaf, 
And that which should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 25 

I must not look to have; but, in their stead. 
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath. 
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. — 
Seyton! 

Enter Seyton. 

Seyton. What's your gracious pleasure? 
Macb. What news more ? 30 

Sey. All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported. 
Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked. 

Give me my armor. 
Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. 

Macb. ril put it on. 

Send out moe horses, skirr the country round ; 35 

Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. — 

How does your patient, doctor? 



ACT V. sc. Ill] MACBETH 81 

Doctor. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
That keep her from her rest. 

Macb. Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 40 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow. 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain. 
And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart? 

Doct. Therein the patient 45 

Must minister to himself. 

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. — 
Come, put mine armor on; ^ive me my staff. 
Seyton, send out. — Doctor, the Thanes fly from me — 
Come, sir, despatch. — If thou couldst, doctor, cast 60 
The water of my land, find her disease 
And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo. 
That should applaud again. — Pull 't off, I say. — 
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug 55 

Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of 
them ? 

Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation 
Makes us hear something. 

Macb. Bring it after me. — 

I will not be afraid of death and bane 
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane. 60 

Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear. 
Profit again should hardly draw me here. Exeunt. 



82 MACBETH [act v. sc. iv. 

Scene IV 

Country near Birnam Wood, 

Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, and Si- ' 
ward's Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, 
Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching. 

Malcolm. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 

That chambers will be safe. 
Menteith. We doubt it nothing. 

Siward. What wood is this before us ? 
Mejit. The wood of Birnam. 

Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough. 

And bear 't before him; thereby shall we shadow 5 

The numbers of our host, and make discovery 

Err in report of us. 
Soldiers. It shall be done. 

Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 

Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 

Our setting down before 't. 
Mai. 'Tis his main hope: lo 

For where there is advantage to be given. 

Both more and less have given him the revolt. 

And none serve with him but constrained things 

Whose hearts are absent too. 
Macduff. Let our just censures 

Attend the true event, and put we on 15 

Industrious soldiership. 
Siw. The time approaches, 

That will with due decision make us know 

What we shall say we have and what we owe. 



ACT V. sc. v.] MACBETH 83 

Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 

But certain issue strokes must arbitrate; 20 

Toward which advance the war. 

Exeunt, marching. 

Scene V 

Dunsinane. Within the Castle. 

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and 

colors, 

Macbeth. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; 
The cry is still '' They come! '' Our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie 
Till famine and the ague eat them up. 
Were they not forced with those that should be ours, 5 
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard. 
And beat them backward home. — [A cry of women 
vnthin] What is that noise ? 
Seyton, It is the cry of women, my good lord. Exit, 

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears. 

The time has been, my senses would have cooled 10 

To hear a night shriek, and my fell of hair 

Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir 

As life were in 't. I have supped full with horrors; 

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts. 

Cannot once start me, — 

Enter Seyton. 

/^ Wherefore was that cry ? 15 

Sty. The Queen, my lord, is dead. 
Macb, She should have died hereafter; 

There would have been a time for such a word. 



84 MACBETH [act v. sc. v. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow. 

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 20 

To the last syllable of recorded time; 

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 25 

And then is heard no more. It is a tale 

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

Signifying nothing. — / 

Enter a Messenger. 

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. 
Messenger, Gracious my lord, 30 

I should report that which I say I saw. 

But know not how to do 't. 
Mach. Well, say, sir. 

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the Hill, 

I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 

The wood began to move. 
Macb. Liar and slave! 35 

Mess, Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so. 

Within this three mile may you see it coming; 

I say, a moving grove. 
Macb, If thou speak'st false. 

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive. 

Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, 40 

I care not if thou dost for me as mucji. — 

I pull in resolution, and begin 

To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend 

That lies like truth: " Fear not, till Birnam Wood 

Do come to Dunsinane'*; and now a wood 45 



ACT V. sc. VI.] MACBETH 85 

Comes toward Dunsinane. — Arm, arm, and out! — 
If this which he avouches does appear, 
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 
I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, 

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. — 50 
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! 
• At least we'll die with harness on our back. 

Exeunt 

Scene VI 

Dunsinane, Before the Castle. 

Drum and- colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, 
and their Army, with houghs. 

Malcolm. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw 
down, 
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son. 
Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we 
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 5 

According to our order. 
Siward. Fare you well. 

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 
Macduff. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all 
breath. 
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. lo 

Exeunt. 



86 MACBETH [act v. sc. vii. 

Scene VII 

Another Part of the Field, 

Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 

Macbeth. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, 
But bearlike I must fight the course. What's he 
That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 

Young Siward. What is thy name ? 

Macb. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. 5 

Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name 

Than any is in hell. 
Macb. Mv name's Macbeth. 

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a title 

More hateful to mine ear. 
Macb. No, nor more fearful. 

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword lo 

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. 

They fight, and young Siward is slain. 
Macb. Thou wast born of woman. — 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 

Brandished by man that's of a woman born. Exit. 

Alarums. Enter Macduff. 

Macduff. That way the noise is. — Tyrant, show thy face! 

If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, 15 

My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 



ACT V. sc. VIII. ] MACBETH 87 

Are hired to bear their staves ; either thou, Macbeth, 

Or else my sword, with an unbattered edge, 

I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; 20 

By this great clatter, one of greatest note 

Seems bruited. — Let me find him, fortune! 

And more I beg not. Exit. Alarums. 

Enter Malcolm and old Si ward. 

Siward. This way, my lord; the Castle's gently ren- 
dered ; 

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; 25 

The noble Thanes do bravely in the war; 

The day almost itself professes yours. 

And little is to do. 
Malcolm. We have met with foes 

That strike beside us. 
Siw, Enter, sir, the Castle. 

Exeunt. Alarum. 

Scene VIII 

Another Part of the Field. 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macbeth. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
On mine own sword ? Whiles I see lives, the gashes 
Do better upon them. 

Enter Macduff. 

Macduff. Turn, hell-hound, turn! 

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee! 

But get thee back; my soul is too much charged 5 

With blood of thine already. 



88 MACBETH [act v. sc. vm. 

Macd. I have no words; 

My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain 

Than terms can give thee out! They fight. Alarum. 
Macb. Thou losest labor. 

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 

With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed. lo 

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; 

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 

To one of woman born. 
Macd. Despair thy charm, 

And let the angel whom thou still hast served 

Tell thee, IMacduff was from his mother's womb 15 

Untimely ripped. 
Macb. x\ccursed be that tongue that tells me so. 

For it hath cowed my better part of man ! 

And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 

That palter with us in a double sense; 20 

That keep the word of promise to our ear, 

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with 
thee. 
Macd. Then yield thee, coward. 

And live to be the show and gaze o' the time. 

We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 25 

Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, 

''Here may you see the tyrant.'* 
Macb. I will not yield. 

To kiss the ground before young INIalcolm's feet, 

And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, so 

And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 

Yet I will try the last. Before my body 

I throw my warlike shield; lay on, Macduff ^ 



ACT V. sc. VIII. ] MACBETH 89 

And damned be he that first cries '' Hold, enough! '' 

Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 

Enter fighting, and Macbeth slain. Retreat. 

Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, 
old Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and 
Soldiers. 

Malcolm. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 35 
Siward. Some must go off; and yet, by these I see. 

So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 
Mai. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 
Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. 

He only lived but till he was a man; 40 

The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed 

In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
- But like a man he died. 
Siw. Then he is dead ? 

Ross. Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow 

Must not be measured by his worth, for then 45 

It hath no end. 
Siw. Had he his hurts before ? 

Ross. Ay, on the front. 
Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he! 

Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 

I would not wish them to a fairer death; 

And so his knell is knolled. 
Mul. He's worth more sorrow, 50 

And that I'll spend for him. 
Siw. He's worth no more. 

They say he parted well and paid his score; 

And so God be with him ! Here comes newer comfort. 



90 MACBETH [act v. sc. vm. 

Enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head, 

Macd. Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands 

The usurper's cursed head; the time is free. 55 

I see thee compassed with thy Kingdom's pearl. 
That speak my salutation in their minds, 
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: 
Hail, King of Scotland! 

AIL Hail, King of Scotland! 

Flourish, 

Mai, We shall not spend a large expense of time 60 

Before we reckon with your several loves, 
And make us even with you. My Thanes and kins- 
men. 
Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland 
In such an honor named. What's more to do. 
Which would be planted newly with the time, — 65 

As calling home our exiled friends abroad 
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, 
Producing forth the cruel ministers 
Of this dead butcher and his fiendlike Queen, . 
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands 70 

Took off her life, — this, and what needful else 
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace 
We will perform in measure, time, and place. 
So thanks to all at once and to each one. 
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. 75 

Flourish, Exeunt omnes. 



NOTES 

Dramatis Personae. 

Dramatis Personae. — Folio^ has no list of the persons of the 
drama. Such a hst, practically complete, was added by 
Rowe in his edition of Shakespeare's plays, 1709. Modern 
editors reprint Rowe's list. 

Duncan. — Duncan, grandson of Malcolm Mackenneth, reigned 
in Scotland, 1034-1040. His mother was Bethoc (Holin- 
shed says "Beatrice"), daughter of Malcolm; his father 
Abbanath Crinan, lay abbot of Dunkeld (Holinshed, 
"Thane of the Isles"). His wife was the daughter of 
Siward, Earl of Northumberland. He had two sons, Mal- 
colm and Donalbain. Malcolm reigned afterwards as Mal- 
colm Canmore from 1054 over Cumbria, and from 1057 
over Scotland, and died in battle with the English in 1093. 
Donalbain reigned after him, contesting the throne of 
Scotland with Malcolm's son, Malcolm III. 

Macbeth. — Macbeth, according to Holinshed, was the son of 
Doada, younger daughter of Malcolm Mackenneth, and of 
Sinel, Thane of Glamis. See Appendix I. For the his- 
torical Macbeth, see Introduction. 

Banquo. — According to Holinshed, Thane of Lochaber and one 
of Duncan's captains or army leaders. Shakespeare keeps 
him clear of evil, but in Holinshed Macbeth relied chiefly 
on Banquo's advice and aid when he slew Duncan. 

Macduff.— Thane of Fife about 1056. His part in the Macbeth 
story of Holinshed is largely fiction, but he seems to have 
been hostile to Macbeth, to have persuaded Malcolm to 
fight for his inheritance, and to have brought about by his 
forces Macbeth 's defeat at Lumphanan. 

Lennox, Ross, etc. — These are territorial names of the Thanes, 
hereditary chiefs of their districts; certain shires and dis- 
tricts of the Highlands still preserve the names. 

Fleance. — Holinshed tells the story of his escape to Wales; his 
love of a Welsh princess; the return of his son, Walter 

91 



92 MACBETH [dramatis persons. 

Steward, to Scotland, and the subsequent union of his line 
with the royal line of Scotland. The story is a myth. 

Siward. — Called "the Strong," — Earl of Northumberland, — a 
Danish nobleman who played an important part in Eng- 
lish history under the Danish kings and Edward the Con- 
fessor. He died in 1055. His son, "Young Siward,'' was 
Osbeorn. 

Hecate. — The usual Elizabethan pronunciation was hek' at; she 
was the mysterious divinity of witchcraft and magic. 



Act First 

[For the meaning of act, scene, and other terms of dramatic construc- 
tion, see the edition of Julius Coesar, Appendix, in the Scribner English 
Classics.] 

The Act and Scene divisions of Macbeth are all carefully indi- 
cated in the early Folios — Actus Primus, — Scoena Prima, 
Scoena Secunda, etc. 

Act I. This Act introduces the elements out of which the play 
is to be wrought— theme, characters, action, scene, atmosphere— 
and completes the action to the point where it is ready to move 
toward both fulfilment of the motive and the complication. 

It is here composed of a prelude of the evil of the theme; a 
battle narrative as heroic setting for Macbeth; the crisis in which 
he is infected with criminal ambition, another in which Lady 
Macbeth is infected, a third in which the two meet and propose 
their common crime of royal murder; the introduction of the 
characters of the counteraction, Banquo, Malcolm, Macduff, — 
Banquo above all to present the reaction from crime that charac- 
terizes the counteraction; the visit of Duncan to Macbeth's castle 
to make time and place cohere for murder; and, finally, the great 
suspense as Macbeth is wrought upon by his wife to go on to the 
deed of murder — the complication of the action. The scene in 
the Highlands of Scotland, the incantation of witches, thunder- 
storm, darkness, battle, blood, offer the appropriate setting and 
atmosphere for a tragic action. 

Scene I 

Scene I. This scene presents the first suggestions of the play 
— its atmosphere of storm, battle, moral confusion, and the sug- 
gested sympathy of the powers of evil with the possible evil in 
the hero. The supernatural element can gain ''poetical cre- 
dence" only by appeal to the imagination. The scene is there- 

93 



94 , MACBETH [act i. sc. i. 

fore brief and suggestive, a lyrical prelude made out of what 
Steevens called ''the fag-end of a Witches' Sabbath." Later the 
supernatural element may, when our imagination is stirred, be 
elaborated (I, iii; IV, i). 

The suggestion of the part of the Witches is found in Holin- 
shed's story of Macbeth. See Appendix I, § 4. 

Setting. Throughout the Folios there is no indication of the 
setting of the scenes. The editors of Shakespeare from Rowe 
on have therefore felt free to devise appropriate directions for 
the scenes. Here Rowe has ''An open heath''; Theobald, ' 'An 
open place"; Capell, "A cross-way"; Pope, "An open heath"; 
Malone, "An open Place"; the Cambridge editors, "A desert 
place." 

Witches met usually in solitary places when the sun was 
down. Storms of hail or snow, wind, thunder and lightning, 
were accounted by magicians the best time for conjuring, as 
spirits of evil were then thought to be nearer the earth. (Scot, 
Discoverie, Append. II.) See Introduction. 

Directions. Thunder and lightning. The note of dark and 
storm-blown atmosphere in which the play runs its course is in- 
dicated at the outset. The effect of thunder and lightning was 
produced on the Elizabethan stage probably by shaking a piece 
of sheet iron or rolling a barrel containing stones, followed by the 
explosion of a petard. 

Entrances. — Enter three Witches. The entrances and exits 
are generally indicated in the Folios. Shakespeare's stage, it 
must be remembered, had no front curtain; his characters, there- 
fore, as a rule, must enter on the scene from doors in the rear of 
the stage. They must likewise leave the stage at the end of the 
scene. Bodies of men presumably slain during the scene must 
be removed, or, like Banquo, dropped into a trap, spoken of as a 
ditch. The explanation of the entrances, and especially of the 
exits and clearing of the stage, must be skilfully given in the 
dialogue. Between the entrance-and-exit doors on either side 
of the back of the main stage hung curtains, which could be 
drawn apart to disclose a small rear stage, for showing special 
scenes, e. gr., the apparitions in Macbeth, IV, i. Above the rear 
stage was a small balcony stage used for situations such as a 
wall, tower, tree, balcony, or rock (see I, vii, Entrances). 

1. — When shall we three meet again. The usual five-accent 
iambic line of Shakespeare's verse is not used in the speeches of 
the Witches. They speak usually in rimed trochaic lines of 



ACT I. SCI.] NOTES 95 

four accents, and here in three-fold sequences ("triads"), 
ending in a chorus. This lyrical movement is in keeping with 
the rhythmic round they dance, and holds them apart from the 
human world. 

— we three. Three has been regarded from earliest antiquity 
as a number of peculiar import; according to Pythagoras 
"three" was unique in having a beginning, middle, and end 
(III); it is the favorite number in folk-lore, mythology, and 
witchcraft. The three-fold pattern persists, in subtle varia- 
tions, through many parts of the play. 

3. — hurlyburly. In El. E., commotion, tumult of battle. 

4. — battle. See I, ii. 

6. — heath. Wild open country, flattish, covered with coarse 
herbage and dwarf shrubs, heath, heather, or ling (N.E.D.). In 
El. E. pron. hayth, hence the rime heath: beth. (Vietor, A 
Shakespeare Phonology, 40.) 

7. — meet. A slight dramatic pause follows this and empha- 
sizes the first mention of Macbeth. 

8. — Graymalkin. — A familiar cat's name. (Malkin is a di- 
minutive of Moll, i. e., Matilda.) 

As good people had their guardian angels, the witches, it was 
believed, had attendant devils. These familiar spirits, who con- 
trolled them and aided them in evil, assumed the forms of dogs, 
cats, toads, rats, fowls, and had familiar names, — Graymalkin, 
Paddock, etc. 

10. — Paddock calls. Folio ^ gives this and the " Anon " to the 
first Witch; but Hunter rightly assigned this speech to the 
second Witch and "anon" to the third. This completes the 
triads in which they speak, and expresses the obvious intention 
of Shakespeare to have each witch answer its familiar spirit. 

The paddock is "the crooked-back frog." (Topsell's History 
of Serpents, 1608.) 

— anon. In El. E., at once, I'm coming, immediately. The 
third Witch here answers the call of her familiar. '' Anon " was 
especially the answer by a servant or other inferior when called. 
(See 1. Henry IV, II, iv, 41, 49 ff.) 

11. — Fair is foul, etc. This expresses the note of moral con- 
fusion that the Witches stand for, — the great element of evil 
in the play. Note the ceaseless and varied reiteration of this 
idea, such as I, iii, 124, ff., I, vi, 66/.; and in larger measure 
I, V, 39-41, with I, vii, 1-10; cf. Malcolm's vilification of himself 
(IV, iii). 



96 MACBETH [act i. sc. ii. 

Warburton explains it with reference only to weather, — i. e. 
"we make the sudden changes of the weather/' but Johnson 
corrected this interpretation: — "To us, perverse and malignant 
as we are, fair is foul, and foul is fair.^^ 

12. — hover. " Witches have the power we have observed, to 
transport themselves from one place to another '^ {A Compleat 
History). "These can pass from place to place in the air in- 
visible'' (Scot, I, iv). To gain this power they rubbed them- 
selves with a magic ointment. 

— filthy. Murky, thick (of clouds) ; obsolete. 

Exeunt. (Pron. ex I' (or a) unt.) They go out (the door), off 
the stage. 

Scene II 

Scene II. This scene develops the suggestion of I, i, 4, 
working out the setting of battle in which Macbeth is brought 
forward. The battle is rendered, for reasons of dramatic econ- 
omy, by report only, through a messenger, who powerfully de- 
picts Macbeth as an heroic figure. 

For the material Shakespeare used, see Holinshed, §§ 2, 3. 
But Shakespeare merged four battles in Holinshed into one 
action, to simplify the story, while enhancing the military 
prowess and glory of Macbeth. 

Setting. A camp near Forres. (Pron. for'ez). Editors have 
differed as to the setting of this scene. Rowe gives " A Palace ''; 
Theobald added "near Forres." 

Forres is a town with the privilege of a royal burgh in the 
county of Elgin. The castle stood on a green mound at the 
west end of the hill. "We went forward the same day to 
Forres, the town to which Macbeth was travelling when he met 
the three weird sisters in his way. This to an Englishman is 
classic ground. . . . We had now a prelude to the Highlands. 
We began to leave fertility behind us, and saw for a great length 
of road nothing but heath." — Dr. Johnson, A Journey to the 
Western Islands. 

Directions. — Alarum. The hurried beating of drums, gener- 
ally used on the El. stage to indicate the approach of military 
forces, the clash of battle, and so forth. 

— within. Off the stage. 

Entrance. A bleeding sergeant. In El. E. a sergeant, or 
sergeant-at-arms, is an officer holding land on military tenure, 
below the rank of knight, roughly equivalent to esquire. Ser- 



ACT I. sc. II.] NOTES 97 

geants were called to various duties, e. g., as bearers of de- 
spatches, beside service in war. Sergeant in El. E. was pro- 
nounced sarg' e ant; notice the scansion of 1. 3. (Abbott, § 
479.) 

The use of the title is suggested by Holinshed, § 2. 

1. — bloody. The note of blood, insistently touched on 
throughout the play, is first heard here. 

3. — newest. Freshest. 

4. — hardy. Bold, courageous. 
— fought . . . 'gainst my captivity. This incident is not 
based on any direct statement in Holinshed. Shakespeare 
invents the incident to give a good status to the sergeant and 
thereby enhance his commendation of Macbeth. 

5. — Hail. Note the special stress marked by the preceding 
pause and omitted light syllable. (Abbott, § 484.) 

7. — thou. In El. E. "thou'' is used to an inferior. Note 
that there are only four accents in the two parts of this line. 
Lines broken into two speeches frequently show only four ac- 
cents, the missing beat falling at the pause of the caesura. (Ab- 
bott, § 506.) 

9. — Macdonwald. In Holinshed, Macdowald. The change 
is suggested possibly by the Donwald of King Duff's reign. 

10. — to that. The absolute use of "that" — to that end, i. e., 
of being a rebel. 

12. — Western Isles. The Hebrides or Western Isles of Scot- 
land. 

13. — Of . . . supplied. "Of" frequently follows verbs in 
the sense of "with." (Abbott, § 171.) 

— kerns and gallowglasses. Light-armed soldiers and men-at- 
arms. 

"The Gallowglas succeedeth the Horseman, and he is com- 
monly armed with a scull, a shirt of mail, and a Gallowglas axe; 
his service in the field is neither good against horsemen, nor 
able to endure an encounter with pikes, yet the Irish do 
make great account of them. The Kerns in Ireland are next in 
request, the very dross and scum of the country . . . these 
be they that live by robbing and spoiling the poor country- 
men . . . are ready to run out with every rebel, and these are 
the very hags of hell, fit for nothing but for the gallows." — 
Barnabie Rich, Description of Ireland, p. 37. 

14. — quarrel. The FoHos read "quarry." Dr. Johnson cor- 
rected this to "quarrel," meaning cause. This is made cer- 



98 MACBETH [act i. sc. ii. 

tain by Holinshed's reading of "rebellious quarrel'^ of Mac- 
dowald's rebellion. 

15. — showed like a rebel's whore. " Fortune, while she smiled 
on him, deceived him." — Malone. 

— all's. All was. 

18. — execution. In El. E. — ion could still be sounded, at 
need, as two syllables. 

19. — valor's minion. "Minion" here has the older sense of 
"darling." (Fr. mignon, darling.) 

20. — slave. Wretch, dog. The line is incomplete metrically. 
(Abbott, § 511.) 

21. — which. In El. E. the relative "which" is used, as here, 
interchangeably with "who" and "that." (Abbott, § 265.) 

— shook hands. Got away from him, a suggestion from a 
leave-taking. 

22. — unseamed. "Unseam," to rip a seam; hence, split, 
cleave. 

— nave. Navel. 

— chops. Or chaps, the jaws unitedly forming the mouth. 
Such illustrations of soldierly strength and valor occur in 
heroic literature. Cf . : " Then from the navel to the throat at 
once He ript old Priam." — Nash, Dido, Queen of Carthage. 
(Steevens.) 

24. — cousin. Duncan and Macbeth were first cousins. See 
Notes to Dramatis Personse. 

25. — As whence the sun. Two interpretations are given: (1) 
That the reflection (L. re and flectere, to bend) means the turn- 
ing back of the sun at the spring equinox, March 21, — a season 
of storms as well as of spring. (2) The other interpretation, 
probably wrong, is that the reflection means the shining of the 
sun in the east, — a usual source of storms. 

— 'gins. Usually printed with an apostrophe as if an abbre- 
viation of "begins." The Mid. E. verb was, however, ginnen, 
to begin. 

27. — spring. The season of spring as the season of renewed 
life. 

— comfort. Aid, support. 

30. — skipping. Agile — appropriate to light-armed troops; 
here quick in their flight. 

31. — Norweyan. This form of the adjective is on the basis of 
Norway {Norway-an). The modern form Norwegian is based 
on the Med. L. Norvegia, Norway. 



ACT I. sc. II.] NOTES 99 

— surveying vantage. Seeing an advantageous chance. 

32. — furbished. Renovated, put into good order. 

34. — captains. Leaders, generals. (L. caput, head.) Pro- 
nounced apparently cap i tain (Fr. capUaine), which makes the 
line practically complete. (Abbott, § 478.) 

36.— sooth. Truth. (A. S. soth, truth.) 

37. — cracks. Charge, load; literally, explosion of cannon. 

38. — doubly redoubled. The pleonasm directs attention to the 
effort on the part of the leaders and to the result of that effort. 

40. — memorize. Make memorable. 

— Golgotha. The hill outside Jerusalem, the most famous 
place of death, as the scene of Christ's crucifixion. 

41. — I cannot tell. The broken line is full of suggestion to the 
actor. 

43. — so ... as. Quite as . . . as. As is by origin the 
emphatic form of so. (A. S. eal-swa, all-so, als, as.) 

44. — smack. Literally to have a certain flavor; here, 
figuratively, to have a certain character. (A. S. smeccan, to 
taste.) 

44b. — Enter Ross. Folio ^ reads "Enter Ross and Angus.'' 
But Angus was not present or he would have learned of Caw- 
dor's treason, which he did not definitely know in I, iii. 111 ^. 

45. — Thane. A king's officer of rank. "Before time the 
noble men of Scotland were of one condition, and called by the 
name Thanes, so much in Latin as Questores regii, gatherers of 
the king's duties, in English, and this denomination was given 
them after their descent and merit." — Holinshed. (A. S. thegn, 
lit. servant, then, with respect to the king's service, a title of 
dignity.) 

Lines with four accents, when there is an interruption in 
the line, are not uncommon. The break allows a pause, a 
gesture, as beckoning to enforce attention. (Abbott, § 506.) 

46.— should. Here, ought. (Abbott, § 323.) 

48. — Fife. A county of Scotland on the east coast between 
the Friths of Forth and Tay. It was anciently the kingdom of 
Fife. The Thane of Fife preserved almost royal privileges. 

49. — flout the sky. Wave arrogantly against the sky. 

50. — Cold. I.e., with apprehension. 

52. — Assisted by. Cawdor was not necessarily in the battle ; cj. 
I, iii. 111 ff.) the mention of him here is apparently an after- 
thought. 

53. — Thane of Cavdor. For his history see Holinshed, § 4. 



100 MACBETH [act i. sc. ii. 

For dramatic economy Shakespeare associates Cawdor's treason 
with the Danish invasion. 

Cawdor is a village in Nainshire, and Cawdor Castle is 
perched above it. When Dr. Johnson visited it: '^The draw- 
bridge is still to be seen, but the moat is now dry. The tower 
is very ancient. The walls are of great thickness, arched on the 
top with stone, and surrounded with battlements." (A Journey 
to the Western Islands.) 

— dismal. Calamitous. (Lat. dies mali^ evil, unlucky days.) 

54. — Bellona's bridegroom. Bellona is the name of the Ro- 
man goddess of war; c/. " Our Admirals . . . courted war like a 
mistress. '' (R. L. Stevenson, "The English Admirals,'^ Virgini- 
bus Puerisque.) 

— lapped. Wrapped, folded. 

— proof. Armor of the best steel, proof against ordinary 
weapons. 

55. — him. The King of Norway. 

— self-comparisons. All qualities of greatness that Norway 
had were met by the self-same qualities in Macbeth. 

56. — point. Macbeth's sword-point. 

57. — lavish. Loose, wild, unbridled. 

59.— That now. In El. E. "so'' before "that" is frequently 
omitted. (Abbott, § 283.) 

60. — Sweno. Holinshed's form of Svend. The most illus- 
trious prince of the name was Svend Forkbeard, who con- 
quered England in 1013 and died 1014. He left his do- 
minions to his sons — Cnud (king of England, 1017-1035, and 
king of Denmark, 1019-1035) and Harald (king of Denmark, 
1014-1018). Cnud's son Svend was king of Norway from be- 
fore 1030 to his dethronement in 1035. (He may be the 
Sweno of Macbeth. Another Svend, son of Cnud's sister 
Estride, ultimately became king of Denmark. Holinshed (see 
p. 185) is inaccurate; but the record of the Danish invasions 
of Scotland and England is most uncertain. 

— The Norways' king. "Norways" pi. was in frequent use 
in El. E. for "Norwegians." 

— composition. Settling of debt, claim, contentions by mu- 
tual agreement. (N. E. D.) 

62.— Saint Colme's Inch. That is, St. Columba's Island, 
county of Fife, in the Frith of Forth. On it are the ruins of a 
monastery dedicated to him. Its modern name is Inchcolm. 
(Inch, Gael, insh, island.) The Danish dead, according to the 



ACT I. sc. III.] NOTES I 101 



old chronicle (Bellenden tr.), were buried here after *' great 
sums of gold" had been paid to Macbeth. 

63. — dollars. Holinshed speaks of the indemnity merely as 
"a great sum of gold." Shakespeare for local color uses a 
common Scottish coin, for the thistle dollar was in current use 
among the Scotch in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
It was first minted in 1578 and was worth about 48^ cents. 
(Dollar is from thaler, the coin first made, in the fifteenth 
century, of the silver of Joachim^/ia^, "Joachim Valley, ^^ 
Bavaria.) 

65. — bosom interest. Trusted confidence; cf. "bosom 
friend." 

— present. Instant. 

68. — noble Macbeth hath .won. This completes the heroic 
story of Macbeth and prepares for the surprise to Macbeth 
in I, iii, 49. 

Scene III 

Scene m. This scene is the first elaboration of the super- 
natural action, preluded in I, i. It presents the witches' 
meeting (or "Sabbath") arranged for in I, i. It opens with 
a "general confession" of evil done and boasted of, and 
intended; and ends, for the effectiveness of their magic 
power, by the completion of the magic circle, at which point 
Macbeth arrives. Out of the meeting of the Witches and 
Macbeth comes the rise of the main action of the play. 

The meeting of Macbeth and the Witches is told in 
Holinshed, § 4. 

Setting. — See 1. 77, "a blasted heath." According to Holin- 
shed the witches met Macbeth and Banquo as they were " pass- 
ing through the woods and fields, when suddenly in the midst of 
a launde [Fr. lande, a heath or moor]." Hardmuir, a little 
W.S.W. of Brodie Station (Dyke parish), "is celebrated as the 
* blasted heath' (now planted), whereon Macbeth met the weird 
sisters of Forres." (F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scot- 
land, 1894.) 

1. — Where hast thou been, Sister? The beginning of the 
"general confession." 

2. — killing swine. Killing cattle by "overlooking" them 
with the evil eye, was one of the offences most frequently 
charged against witches. 



102 MACBETH [act i. sc. hi. 

5. — munched. The Folio reads "mounched" — a variant 
form of '' munched." Note the three-fold repetition (I, i, 1, n.); 
see also 1. 10. 

— quoth. Said. {Quoth is the preterit of quethe (cf. be- 
queath), from A. S. cwethan, pret. cweath, to speak or say.) 

6. — aroint thee. "Roint" still means to stand on one side, 
get out of the way, in the Cheshire dialect. "^Rynt you, 
witch,' quoth Bessie Locket to her mother." (Ray, 1691, in 
Wright, Dialect Diet.) 

— rump-fed. Fed from offal or scraps from the kitchen. 

— ronyon. Cf. the colloquial "scab" as a term of contempt. 
Literally a mangy, scabby animal; also a scurvy person. (Fr. 
rogne, itch, scurf.) Cf. ''Out of my door, you witch, you rag, 
you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! out, out! I'll conjure 
you." {Merry Wives, IV, ii, 197-199.) 

7. — Aleppo. Once the emporium of trade between the Medi- 
terranean and the East, being the first commercial city of Asia 
Minor. 

— master. The chief officer of a trading vessel, — " captain " 
properly meaning the chief officer of a large vessel of war. 

— "Tiger." In Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations, Voy- 
ages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, Made by Sea or Over 
Land, 1589, there is an account of a voyage by Ralph Fitch 
and others in a ship called the Tiger to Tripoli, whence they went 
by caravan to Aleppo, in the year 1583. (Clark-Wright.) 

8. — sieve. In the confession of Agnes Thompson, given in 
News from Scotland, she acknowledged that they (the witches) 
"together went to sea, each in a riddle or sieve." This was re- 
puted to be in their power; cf. " They can sail in an egg-shell, a 
cockle or mussel shell, through and under tempestuous seas." 
(Scot, I, iv.) 

9. — like. In the likeness or semblance of. 

— rat without a tail. In magic transformations of men into 
animals there was always some trace of their real character, 
such as their lack of a tail, just as the devil in human form 
showed the cloven hoof. 

10. — do. An intensive sense, — do the peculiar work of rats, 
i. e.j gnaw. 

11. — I'll give thee a wind. "They can raise storms or tem- 
pests in the air, either by sea or land, if God permits them, 
though not universal, but not so lasting as those which naturally 
happen; which is very possible for the Devil to do, since he is a 



ACT I. sc. III.] NOTES 103 

spirit, and of an affinity with the air; which may easily be moved 
by a spirit; and we read that the Scripture itself gives the Devil 
the title of Prince of the Air/' (A Compleat History.) Scot also 
mentions this superstition. 

The free gift of a wind is to be considered an act of 
sisterly friendship, for witches were supposed to sell them." 
(Steevens.) 

14. — all the other. Winds is understood. ' 

15. — ports. To the Clarendon editors the word seems forced; 
they suggest "orts, '' northern English '^arts," Scottish "airts"; 
the cardinal points; but this would repeat the idea in the line 
that follows. The Witch means to keep him from harbor, 
beset with contrary winds like Vanderdecken. 

16. — quarters. Directions, or points of the compass. 

17. — shipman's card. The card is the circular piece of stiff 
paper on which the thirty points are marked in the mariner's 
compass. 

18. — drain him dry. Witches professed themselves able to 
make a man shrivel or waste away; their means was usually the 
wax or clay image. (See Holinshed, § 6.) 

20. — penthouse. A shed having a sloping roof; here pict- 
uresquely used of the eyelid. (O. Fr. apentis, shed; cf, ap- 
pendage.) 

21. — forbid. Obsolete form of ^^ forbidden'' — laid under a 
curse or interdict; cf. "read out." 

22. — se'nnights. Se'nnight, seven nights, i. e., a week. 

— nine times nine. Nine is a favorite number in magic, being 
a multiple of three; see I, i, 1, n. 

23. — peak, and pine. "Peak" means to waste away, chiefly 
used in this collocation. It implies the sharpening of the 
features with disease. See 1. 18, n., and Holinshed, § 6. 

24.— bark cannot be lost. The power of witches over storms 
and ships was limited. 

28. — pilot's thumb. Witches used members of a dead body in 
their magic brews. See IV, i, 26-31. 

29. — Wracked. A variant form of wrecked. 

— homeward. "A pathetic touch emphasizing the Witch's 
malignity. " (Verity.) 

32. — weird. Folio ^ reads "weyward sisters." This points to 
the El. E. pronunciation of "weird" as a dissyllable. (Cf. 
Abbott, § 485.) The name "weird Sisters," or Sisters of Fate 
(A. S. wyrdy fate), suggests an association of the Witches with 



104 MACBETH [act i. sc. m. 

the three Norns of Norse mythology. (C/. the Parcse of Roman, 
and the Moirai of Greek mythology.) 

33. — posters. Those who travel by post, expeditiously, — 
couriers. See 1. 97, n. 

35. — Thrice to thine. They dance in turn to one another. 

37. — the charm's wound up. The incantation is completed 
by the finished circle of the dance. " At these magical assem- 
blies, the witches never fail to dance; and in their dance they 
sing.'' — Scot, II, ii. 

38.— foul and fair. An echo of I, i, 9,—" foul " in storm, " fair " 
in victory. Note the dramatic irony with respect to the future. 

39. — What are these? "One sort of such as are said to be 
witches, are women which be commonly old, lame, blear-eyed, 
pale, foul, and full of wrinkles. . . . They are lean and de- 
formed, showing melancholy in their faces, to the horror of all 
that see them. They are doting scolds, mad, devilish; and not 
much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with 
spirits." — Scot, I, iii. 

Note how Banquo's speech conveys the total mental impres- 
sion needed to enhance the mere physical appearance of the 
witches on the stage. 

40. — withered. Shrunk, wrinkled. 

44. — choppy. A variant form of "chappy," full of clefts or 
cracks. 

45. — should be. See I, ii, 46, n. 

46. — beards. A reported characteristic of a witch; cf. "By 
yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed; I like not 
when a 'oman has a great peard." — Merry Wives^ IV, ii, 202, 203. 

48. — All hail. This is a stronger salutation than " hail." 

— Glamis. (Pro. glams.) The thaneship of Glamis was the 
ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The castle where they 
lived is still standing, though its present form, — a stately pile in 
the style of the great French chateaux, — is scarcely earlier than 
the sixteenth century. 

53. — ye. In the earlier form of the language ye was the 
nominative and vocative, you the accusative. This distinction, 
though observed in our version of the Bible, was not regarded 
by Elizabethan authors, and ye was generally used in questions, 
entreaties, and rhetorical appeals. (Abbott, § 236.) 

— fantastical. Imaginary, existing only in fancy. 

54. — show. Appear. 

— partner. Associate, colleague. 



ACT I. sc. III.] NOTES 105 

55. — present grace. Immediate favor, i. e., Thane of Glamis 
and Cawdor. 

— great prediction. Future honor, i. e., king that shall be. 

56. — noble having, etc. Construe ''noble having^' with 
"present grace,'' and *' royal hope" with ''great prediction." 
This cross construction, called in rhetoric hypallage, is found 
in condensed and antithetical style such as characterizes 
this play. 

57.— that. Cf: I, ii, 58, n. 

— withal. An emphatic form of uoith, especially used at the 
end of a sentence. 

60. — beg . . . favors. There is cross construction as in 11. 
55, 56. 

67.— get. Beget. 

70. — imperfect. Incomplete, — obsolete in this sense. 

71. — Sinel. (Pron. sVnel.) Macbeth's father, according to 
Holinshed, was Synell, Thane of Glamis. 

72. — Cawdor lives . . . prosperous. This seems incongru- 
ous with I, ii, 53; but in days of scanty means of diffusing news, 
Macbeth might not have, in the confusion of rebellion and in- 
vasion, a knowledge of all against whom he fought in person, or 
of traitors elsewhere. Shakespeare was anxious to provide an 
easy explanation of Cawdor's treason and mixed him up in the 
rebellion, though Holinshed put Cawdor's treason after the 
battle. 

76. — owe. Have, possess. {Cf. own.) 

81. — Into the air. The dialogue here suggests to the imagina- 
tion the magic powers of transportation ascribed to witches. 

84.— eaten on. Eaten of {cf. "feed on"). (Abbott, § 138, 
181.) 

— insane root. This forestalls the possible incredulity of the 
audience respecting the supernatural. The passage is a rem- 
iniscence of Shakespeare's reading of Plutarch: ''To taste of 
roots that were never eaten before, among which there was 
one that killed them, and made them out of their wits." — 
North's Plutarch, "Antonius." 

92. — His wonders and his praises. The plain sense is that the 
King's mind alternates between wonder and praise — the wonder 
is " his " (1. 94), the praise is " thine " (Macbeth's). For the con- 
struction, cf. 1. 56, n. 

93. — silenced with that. The contention of praise and won- 
der leaves him without words to express either. 



106 MACBETH [act i. sc. hi. 

96. — afeared. Afraid. The form is an imitation of afraid 
on the basis of fear. It is used more than thirty times by- 
Shakespeare, but is rare in hterature after 1700, having been 
supplanted by afraid. (N. E. D.) 

97. — images of death. Dead bodies, but with heightened 
suggestion of their horror. 

— as tale. As (you could) count. (A. S. talu, a number, a 
narrative.) This is the Folio reading; Rowe emended it to 
"hail.'' The comparison, "as thick as hail," is found through- 
out Elizabethan literature. 

98. — post. From the beginning of the sixteenth century 
"post" applied to men with horses stationed in places at suit- 
able distances along the post roads, the duty of each being to 
ridie with, or forward to the next stage, the king's " packet," and, 
later, with the letters of other persons. Hence a messenger 
who travels express with letters and messages. (N. E. D.) 
(Fr. paste, late L. or Rom. jposta^ sub. from postus, positus, p. pi. 
of ponere, to place.) 

104. — earnest. A pledge, literally money paid as an instal- 
ment, especially for the purpose of binding a bargain. 

106. — addition. That which is added to a man's name; his 
title. 

107. — devil speak true. Folio ^ spells deuill, pointing to the 
pronunciation as one syllable — de'il. The devil is the father of 
lies; of. John, viii, 44. 

109. — who. The absolute relative, — he who. 

111. — combined. Allied, associated. 

112. — line. Reinforce. 

113. — vantage. Aid, assistance. 

115. — capital. Punishable by death, beheading. (L. caput, 
the head.) 

120. — trusted home. Fully believed. 

— home. To the full. The meaning is retained with the 
verbs used of weapons, "thrust," "strike." 

121. — enkindle. Incite. 

124. — instruments of darkness. Emissaries of Satan. Cf. 
Luke, xxii, 53; Colossians, i, 13; also, "The black prince, sir; 
ahas, the prince of darkness; ahas, the devil." (AWs Well, IV, v, 
45.) Note the tragic issue of the play here sketched out in dra- 
matic anticipation. 

127. — cousins. Used freely in Shakespeare of any relation ex- 
cept of the first degree; here of friends and fellow nobles. 



ACT I. sc. III.] NOTES 107 

— I pray you. An extra syllable is frequently added 
before a pause, especially at the end of a line or speech. 
(Abbott, § 454.) 

128, 129. — prologue . . . imperial theme. Macbeth treats 
his fortunes as a drama, with prologue, and with a developing 
action dealing with the theme of kingship. This aids the 
illusion of reality as regards the play itself. 

130. — soliciting. Prompting, inciting, allurement to do 
something. 

135. — unfix my hair. The peculiar sensation of the scalp 
under the influence of fear is noted in Job, iv, 15; c/. Tempest ^ 
I, ii, 213; Hamlet, I, v, 19; Julius Coesar, IV, iii, 279. 

136. — seated. Firmly fixed or stationed. 

137. — use. Custom, habit. 

— Present fears . . . horrible imaginings. This enunciates 
one of the chief characteristics of Macbeth, and therefore of the 
play — his imaginative temperament. 

— fears. Things to be feared — the active sense of both verb 
and noun is frequent in El. E. 

139. — fantastical. See i, 53, n. Note the scansion; lines end- 
ing in extra unaccented syllables characterize the verse of 
Shakespeare's later plays. 

140. — Shakes so my single state of man. Macbeth feels his 
weak (" single '0 humanity, his human constitution ('^ state of 
man'')> so shaken by the horror of murderous thought that he is 
unnerved, unmanned. These lines show how new to Macbeth's 
mind is the thought of murder and dispose of the contention 
(Moulton) that Macbeth's murderous thoughts are of old 
standing. 

— function, etc. Power of action is overcome by spec- 
ulation; cf. Hamlet's words on resolution sickhed o'er 
by thought so that enterprises cease to be actions. III, 
i, 84 ff. 

141. — nothing is, etc. The future ("what is not") utterly 
possesses him; all else is nothing. 

142. — partner. Companion, associate, colleague. 

143. — If chance, etc. The acceptance of the Witches' proph- 
ecies begins in this neutral position; cf. I, v, 19 /. 

145. — strange. New, unfamihar. 

— mould. The human figure for which they were designed; 
cf. "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." {Hamlet^ 
III, i, 161.) 



108 MACBETH [act i. sc. iv. 

147. — Time and the hour runs, etc. Time, little by little, sees 
us through, etc. The apparently singular form of the verb 
^^ runs ^' is frequently found in Shakespeare when the subject is 
two singular nouns. (Abbott, § 336.) 

153. — chanced. Happened. 

154. — The interim. In the interim. In El. E. the preposi- 
tion is frequently omitted in adverbial expressions of time, 
manner, etc. (Abbott, § 202.) 

— speak our free hearts. Utter our inmost thoughts freely. 

Scene IV 

Scene IV. This scene brings the two opposing parts of the 
general action for the first time together. Dramatic interest 
grows as the grateful King rewards the general in whom secret 
treachery is brewing. Out of the meeting comes the incident 
that rouses Macbeth to action, since chance apparently will 
not crown him without his stir. 

The material of this scene is in Holinshed, § 5. 

Directions. — Flourish. A fanfare (of horns, trumpets, etc.), 
especially to announce the approach of a person of distinction. 

2. — in commission. Having authority committed to them 
for a fixed purpose. (N. E. D.) 

— my liege. That is, "my liege lord." A liege lord is one 
that is supreme, free (OG. ledig, free) from homage to others. 
In general use " my liege " is the characteristic epithet of persons 
in the relation of feudal vassal and superior. 

3. — spoke. The tendency to drop the inflection -en of the 
perfect participle of strong verbs has given many variant 
forms of the perfect participle in El. E. (Abbott, § 343.) 

8. — the leaving it. "The" frequently precedes a verbal that 
is followed by an object; modern syntax prefers "of" in this 
construction. (Abbott, § 93.) 

9. — studied. Trained and practised. To "study" is the 
actor ^s term for his finished preparation of his part. This 
elaboration of Cawdor's death is not in Holinshed. Shake- 
speare might readily recall the splendid bearing of the Earl of 
Essex, Elizabeth's favorite, when executed for treason, 1601, 
and pay this tribute to the memory of his friend. 

10. — owed. Possessed; cf. I, iii, 76. 

11. — as 'twere, etc. In the way in which he would throw it 
away, were it a trifle of no concern. 



ACT I. sc. IV.] NOTES 109 

— careless. /. e,, causing no care; adjectives, especially those 
ending in -ful, -less, -hie, and -ive, have in Shakespeare both an 
active and a passive meaning. 

12. — the mind's construction. The interpretation of the 
mind. 

14a. — Enter Macbeth. Note the moment chosen — the dra- 
matic irony in the King's last words in relation to Macbeth's 
entrance. 

17. — slow. /. e., "too slow." 

19. — the proportion . . . mine. That is, that I could then 
pay you in proportion to my gratitude. 

20. — only I have. "Only" is emphatic by place; "this alone 
I have. " 

23. — pays itself. The singular is the result of the common 
meaning of " service and loyalty "; i. e., service of a loyal subject; 
see also I, iii, 147, n. 

26. — doing every thing safe. An expression analogous to 
"making everything safe" — making everything sure that con- 
cerns love and honor to the king. 

31. — infold. A varied form of enfold. 

34. — wanton in fulness. Unrestrained in their abundance. 

37. — establish our estate. Settle (the succession to) the 
kingdom. 

39. — Prince of Cumberland. See HoHnshed, § 5. 

Cumberland in the time of Macbeth included the counties of 
Westmoreland, Cumberland, and the south-western part of 
Scotland to the Clyde. See Green's Short History of the English 
People, Chap, i, Sec. v, Map. It was a reward given about 943 
to the Scots for helping the English against the Danes. Holin- 
shed speaks of the event: — By the terms of a treaty between 
Athelstan and Malcolm "Northumberland kingdom, as now 
replenished vast with Danish inhabitants, should remain to the 
Englishmen: and Cumberland with Westmoreland to the Scots; 
upon the condition, that he which should succeed as heir unto 
the crown of Scotland after the king's decease being heir ap- 
parent, should hold those regions, and do homage unto the king 
of England as his vassal perpetually for the same." 

41. — signs of nobleness. Insignia of nobility. 

Holinshed does not mention this general distribution of hon- 
ors; such was done, however, at the accession of Duncan's 
son Malcolm (V, viii, 62). 

42. — Inverness. Macbeth's castle was there; see I, v, Setting. 



<" 



110 MACBETH lact i. sc. v. 

44. — The rest, etc. Repose, inactivity; — a courtier's speech. 

45. — harbinger. Literally one sent on before to provide lodg- 
ings for a royal train. (C/. O. Fr. herberge, Mod. Fr. auberge, 
lodging, inn.) 

48 /. — a step ... on which I must fall down. See Holin- 
shed, § 5. 

The " aside " lets us see the developing evil purpose of Mac- 
beth; cf. I, iv, 130 ff. 

50. — Stars, hide your fires. The atmosphere of night settles 
upon Macbeth's deeds. 

52. — wink. To be wilfully blind. 

— let that be. The Hues of character are laid here, to be 
taken up and developed in I, v, 19-26. 

54. — True, worthy Banquo. Suggesting by a final summary 
word the general nature of their discussion during Macbeth's 
^' aside.'' 

56. — banquet. In El. E. pronounced banket. 

58.— It is. Frequently used in El. E. for "he is." 

Scene V 

Scene V. This scene presents Lady Macbeth, and shows how 
evil reaches her and infects her. In various ways her character 
is elaborated in presentation. The two great partners in crime, 
thus ready to meet, are brought together, and the murder, no 
longer '^fantastical," becomes a conscious purpose, and the ex- 
position of the elements of the play is complete. 

Shakespeare gets from Holinshed only a hint of this scene. 
See § 5. 

Setting. Inverness — The Castle. Inverness is a very ancient 
city, the chief town of the Highlands. It is built where the 
Ness, which flows from Loch Ness, enters Beauly and Moray 
Friths. Holinshed speaks of its foundation under King Edwin 
and its being "rich and well stored with divers kinds of 
merchandise." 

Macbeth was by birth the mormaor, or hereditary steward, or 
magistrate, of Moray, the district adjoining Inverness. His 
castle, according to tradition, stood on a steep hill a few min- 
utes' walk east of the town. 

When Malcolm Canmore vanquished Macbeth he seized his 
stronghold, and " in all probability razed his castle at Inverness, 
and built instead of it, as a royal residence, a fortress on Castle 



ACT I. sc. v.] NOTES 111 

Hill." (Groome, Survey of Scotland.) Nothing of this latter is 
left except two bastions and part of the wall. 

History claims the place of Duncan's murder to be Both- 
gowan, i. e. Pitgaveny, near Elgin (Skene). 

Directions. Reading a letter. This informs Lady Macbeth 
of the facts in summary. When Macbeth enters, the dramatic 
crisis is reached at once, without the delay of explanations. 

1. — They met me. Only the concluding part of the letter is 
read — the part bearing on the matter of the play. This aids the 
illusion of reality. 

2. — perfectest. Fullest, most thorough, most accurate. 
Other obsolete senses are: completely assured, fully informed; 
exact as to facts, accurate; in perfect satisfaction, contented. 
Cf. Ill, i, 107, 129. 

— report. Intelligence, information. 

5. — Whiles. An obsolete (adverbial) form, from which comes 
the modern whilst. 

6. — missives. Messengers; now used only of letters, etc., sent. 

11. — My dearest partner of greatness. This indicates not 
merely the clear association of Macbeth and his wife, but how 
welcome the great news will be to her ambitious mind. 

12.— dues of rejoicing. Rights of sharing in the general joy; 
cf. "dues of gratitude.'' (King Lear, II, iv, 182.) 

16. — I do fear thy nature, etc. The lines of Macbeth's char- 
acter are here definitely enunciated. Lady Macbeth's com- 
ment is not mere information, but is a dramatic analysis bearing 
on the situation, and preparing for the complication of 1, vii. 
The criticism of her husband reveals her own character; she is 
the complement of her husband — what he lacks she has. 

17. — milk of human kindness. Milk is a type of what is 
pleasant and nourishing, as in the Bible phrase "milk and 
honey;" hence figurative in this phrase it means the compas- 
sion of humane persons. (N. E. D.) 

18. — nearest way. One of the many euphemisms in the play 
for murder. 

— thou wouldst be great. Here "wouldst" retains its princi- 
pal force, "wishest." 

20. — illness. Wickedness, depravity; obsolete in this sense; 
it is nowhere else used by Shakespeare. (N. E. D.) 

— should attend it. In El. E. the relative is frequently 
omitted, especially where the antecedent clause is emphatic 
and evidently incomplete. (Abbott, § 244.) 



in MACBETH [ACT I sc. V. 

25.— Hie thee hither. Strictly, " Hie thou hither." " Thee " 
thus used follows imperatives which, being themselves em- 
phatic, tend to lighten the stress on the pronoun; hence in El. E. 
"thou" was reduced frequently to "thee." (Abbott, § 212.) 

26. — pour my spirits in thine ear. Speak to thee, instilling thee 
with my courage. 

27. — Chastise ... all that impedes thee. Correct whatever 
there is in Macbeth's disposition to make him hang back. 
Chas'tise is the usual accentuation in Shakespeare. 

28. — golden round. The crown; for similar periphrases, cf. 
" The golden circuit on my head.— ;^. Henry VI, III, i, 152; " The 
inclusive verge Of golden metal." — Richard III, IV, i, 60; "O 
polished perturbation! golden care! " — 2. Henry /F, IV, v, 23. 

29. — fate and ... aid doth. See I, iii, 147, n. 

— metaphysical. In the etymological sense — "beyond the 
physical," beyond nature, — supernatural. 

31. — Thou'rt mad. The unexpected news comes so near her 
secret thought, that she is for a moment startled out of her self- 
possession. 

33. — informed. Given instructions. 

35. — had the speed of him. Went more speedily, had the ad- 
vantage of him in speed. 

^ 38. — The raven. This crow-like bird, because of its black 
plumage, was commonly reputed as ominous; cf. ^ 'Like the sad- 
presaging raven, that tolls The sick man's purport in her hollow 
beak." — Marlowe, Jew of Malta, II, i. "When a raven stands 
upon some high place, look what way he turns himself and 
cries; thence, as some think, shall shortly come a dead corpse; 
albeit this sometime may be true by reason of the sharp sense 
of smelling in the raven." (Perkins, Discourse of Witchcraft, c. 
1608.) 

There is a powerful figure in the thought of the breathless 
messenger as the hoarse raven. 

40. — Under my battlements. The imperiousness of Lady 
Macbeth breathes in the possessive. 

— Come, you spirits. Note the imperious will that boldly 
summons the powers of evil to her. The woman in her is, bit 
by bit, to be cast out or transmuted by strength of will. Con- 
trast Macbeth's passive reception of evil in I, iii. 

41. — mortal thoughts. Not the thoughts of mortals, but 
murderous, deadly, or destructive designs (Johnson). See III, 
iv, 81 and IV, iii, 3. 



ACT I. sc. v.] NOTES 113 

43. — make thick my blood. In the darker passions the blood 
was supposed to be curdled, heavy, scarcely visiting the heart; 
cf. (Liddell) 

** Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, 
Had baked the blood and made it heavy-thick, 
Which else runs tickling up and down the veins." 

—King John, III, iii, 42 if. 

44 — access. Ac cess\ the usual accentuation in Shake- 
speare. 

— remorse. Frequently used in El. E. for sorrow, pity, 
compassion. 

45. — compunctious visitings. Comings of compunction. 

46. — keep peace, etc. That no qualms of mercy shall come 
between the purpose and the accomplished deed. 

48. — gall. The bitter secretion of the liver; here bitterness of 
spirit which is to take the place of the milk of human kindness; 
cf. 1. 18, n. 

— murdering ministers. Agents of murder, i. e., evil spirits. 
The Folio form of murder is murther, still common in Irish 
dialect. 

49. — sightless substances. Invisible bodies. For "sight- 
less " in the same sense see I, vii, 23. 

50. — mischief. In El. E. in a worse sense than now, — active 
evil. 

51. — pall thee. Veil thyself. In the older language "self" 
was added to reflexive pronouns only when emphatic. 

— dunnest. " Dun " is dark, gloomy, murky. 

52. — my keen knife. She thinks to do the murder herself; cf. 
II, ii, 12 /. 

53. — blanket of the dark. A figure for night frequent in 
Shakespeare. Night is compared elsewhere to a mantle, 1 . Henry 
y/, II, ii, 2, and 3, Henry IV y IV, ii, 22; to a cloak, Lucrece, 
801. The comparison has come into popular poetry. — 

*'Night dropped her sable curtain down 
And pinned it with a star." 

— McDonald Clarke. 

54. — Hold, hold! This call in the midst of combat required 
the swordsman to withhold his strode. ''Whosoever shall 
strike stroke at his adversary either in haste or otherwise, if a 
third do cry hold, to the intent to part them : except that they 
did fight a combat in a place enclosed; and then no man shall be 



114 MACBETH [act i. sc. vi. 

so hardy to bid hold, but the General/' (Instructions for the 
Wars, tr. 1589, cited by Toilet.) 

— Great Glamis! etc. Lady Macbeth takes up the salutations 
of the Witches, not echoing them merely; she is convinced that 
she can carry her purpose through, and Macbeth's kingship is 
already to her a reality. 

57. — ignorant present. That is, the present knows little com- 
pared with that which they prophetically know of their future. 

— feel now. In Shakespeare's later versification he fre- 
quently brings together two strongly stressed syllables with a 
pause between. 

60. — O, never Shall sun. Lines II, iv, 6-10 cast a special 
aspect on this prophecy. 

63. — beguile. In its primary sense of deceive. 

— time. The contemporary world of persons and events. 

65. — look like the innocent flower. Cf. I, i, 9, n. 

67. — provided for. Prepared for. Lady Macbeth intends a 
double meaning: — in the natural sense of preparation for a guest, 
but by euphemistic innuendo, "taken care of, i. e., " killed. '^ 

68. — business. Serious matter. "Business" is frequently 
used in this play, always with a graver sense than it bears in 
Mod. E. It means pains, endeavor, I, vi, 16; particular work, I, 
vii, 31; particular topic, matter, II, i, 23; (vague) affair, II, i, 
48; trouble, difficulty, disturbance, II, iii, 62; deeds of diligent 
labor, II, V, 22. 

— into my dispatch. Upon me to direct, into my management; 
cf. 1. 74. 

69. — our days. Note Lady Macbeth's full share in 

ambition, in the crime, the deed, and the anticipated results. 

71. — We will speak further. This suggests the conversation 
which is to take place off the stage and which is noted at I, vii, 
51 as having occurred in the interim. 

— clear. Unruffled; cf. I, i, 11. 

73. — favor. Countenance. 

— ever is to fear. Always causes alarm, awakens suspicion. 

Scene VI 

Scene VI. This scene brings Duncan into Macbeth's power. 
The strongest contrast is presented of '^fair is foul " in the pleas- 
•ant picture of the castle in which he is to be murdered and the 
gracious welcome of his murderess. The meeting of- Lady 



ACT I. sc. VI.] NOTES 115 

Macbeth and the King is parallel to that of Macbeth and the 
King in Scene iv. 

"The lyrical movement with which this scene opens, and the 
free and unengaged mind of Banquo, loving nature, and re- 
warded in the love itself, form a highly dramatic contrast with 
the labored rhythm and hypocritical over-much of Lady Mac- 
beth's welcome, in which you cannot detect a ray of personal 
feeling, but all is thrown upon the dignities, the general duty." 
(S. T. Coleridge.) 

The scene is developed from the suggestion of Holin- 
shed, § 6. 

Setting. — Given by Rowe and Theobald as "The Castle 
Gate." 

The charming description of the Castle of Inverness is not 
from Holinshed but is added by Shakespeare. The details he 
might learn readily from Scots in London, or, as some believe, 
by his own travel as an actor in Scotland. 

— Directions. — Hautboys and torches. That is, players of 
hautboys and torch-bearers. 

— Hautboys. Wind instruments like a clarionet, but of a 
soprano compass. (Fr. haut, high, and hois^ wood.) Now 
usually written oboe. 

— torches. The Elizabethan torch was a twisted roll of tow 
soaked in tallow and borne in an iron frame. 

2. — nimbly and sweetly. That is, the air is invigorating yet 
balmy. 

3. — gentle senses. Senses soothed when refreshed by the air 
— "gentle" is proleptic. 

4. — temple-haunting martlet. The reference is to the black 
martins or swifts, which "fix their nests to rocks, lofty church 
windows, and the tops of towers," called sometimes church 
martlets. (Turner, History of the Principal Birds, etc., 1544.) 

— Approve. El. E., prove. 

5. — loved mansionry. The nest it builds for its young. 
FoHo^ reads "mansonry," amended by Pope to "masonry," 
and by Theobald to "mansionry." 

6. — smells wooingly. Attracts; the air smells so sweet that it 
entices. When the migratory birds, most sensitive to weather 
and pure air, chose this place for their very nests, that is proof 
that the air is "delicate." 

— jutty. — A variation of jetty (Fr. jetee, something thrown 
out). A projecting part of a wall or building. 



116 MACBETH [act i. sc. vi. 

— frieze. Probably here used for the crenellated cornice of 
the castle wall. 

7. — buttress. A structure of wood, stone, or brick built 
against a wall or building to strengthen or support it. 
(N. E. D.) 

— coign of vantage. Advantageous corner for defence. 
"Coign" is an archaic spelling of "coin," "quoin." "In the 
Shakespearian phrase ' coign of vantage ' a position (properly 
a projecting corner) affording facility for observation or ac- 
tion." (N. E. D.) But the phrase "of vantage" may here 
mean only " advantageous," " favorable." 

8. — his. Its. The neuter possessive its was the invention of 
El. E. Shakespeare usually uses his^ the older possessive mas- 
culine and neuter; he sometimes uses of it; twelve times he uses 
it, and ten times (late printed plays) its. In the 1611 version 
of the Bible its does not occur; but it is freely used by Milton, 
and is universal in Dryden. 

— pendent bed. The nest of the martlet made of plastered 
mud hangs usually from the side of the wall. *' The nest which 
they construct looks like a little basket formed of mud, some- 
what drawn out, an entrance of the straightest (i. e. very 
small) opening beneath." (Turner.) 

9. — air is delicate. Dr. Johnson records in his Journey to the 
Western Islands that " it was said at Fort Augustus that Lough 
Ness is open in the hardest winters, though a lake not far from 
it is covered with ice." 

10a. — Enter Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth welcomes Dun- 
can rather than Macbeth not as hostess merely, but because she 
has taken the business into her despatch. 

11. — The love that follows us. Duncan is graciously excusing 
the trouble his visit causes by the love he bears Macbeth. 
Others love him and pursue him with attentions that become a 
burden; so he, loving Macbeth, comes, out of love, to trouble 
him with this visit. Yet as he thanks his loving but importunate 
friends, he would have (teach) Lady Macbeth do the same, and 
say "God bless you" even for the very trouble his visit makes. 

13. — 'ild. Reward, repay. (A. S. gieldan, to pay, give up, 
Mod. E. yield.) The phrase "God yield you!" was a conven- 
tional phrase like "God bless you!" 

15. — In every point twice done. Note how protestation and 
mere rhetoric mark the dissimulation of Lady Macbeth and 
Macbeth. 



ACT I. sc. VII.] NOTES 117 

16. — single. This meaning comes from the notion of the 
weakness of the one (single) against the strength of many; 
cf. also "single" of ale meaning "mild'' as against "double," 
meaning "strong." 

— business. Endeavor, pains; see I, v, 69, n. 

19. — hermits. That is, praying continually for the King's 
welfare. Cf. 1. 13. Hermit, which meant originally one who 
from religious motives has retired from the world, came in 
El. E. to mean a beadsman, one paid or endowed to pray for 
the souls of his benefactors. 

21. — coursed him at the heels. A metaphor drawn from the 
sport of coursing, in which the greyhounds pursue the game by 
eight. 

22. — purveyor. Variant form of "provider"; an officer who 
provided for or arranged for the entertainment of his master 
when travelling. 

23. — holp. An obsolete or archaic past participle of help. 
(A. S. pp. holpen.) 

26. — compt. (Pron. formerly kompt.) An obsolete form of 
count, reckoning; "in compt," in charge as stewards. 

27. — audit. A statement of account, a balance sheet; obso- 
lete in this sense. 

28. — Still. Ever — a frequent sense in El. E. 

30. — our graces. Our marked favors. 

Scene VII 

Scene VII. This scene represents the great crisis of the first 
act — the irrevocable decision. It opens with a meditative so- 
liloquy, voicing the reluctant qualms of Macbeth. The will to 
do enters in the person of Lady Macbeth to overpower his re- 
luctance. In brilliant speeches that touch motive after motive 
Lady Macbeth nerves Macbeth to action. Thus the scene offers 
the recoil at the beginning, the conflict of the middle, and the 
consequent intensification of the final resolution. It is perfect 
dramatic writing. 

The scene is a dramatic development of Holinshed's story, 
§ 6, with possible suggestions from Bellenden. 

Directions. — Hautboys and torches. See I, vi. Directions. 

Entrances. — A Sewer. The chief domestic officer in charge 
of the foods and service of the table. 

— over the stage. That is, they cross over by the balcony 



118 MACBETH [act i. sc. vii. 

stage (see I, i, Entrances, n.) to suggest the supper going 
on (1. 29). 

1. — If it were done. The emphatic word is done — first in the 
sense of "finished and done with," second in the sense of "ac- 
comphshed." 

3. — trammel up. Catch and confine as in a net. 

4. — his surcease. "Surcease" is "ceasing to be," "expira- 
tion." His probably refers to "assassination" —its; it may 
possibly refer to Duncan. 

— that. The pro-conjunction in El. E.; it here stands for 
"if" (1. 1). 

6.— but. Only. 

— shoal. Foho^ reads "schoole," a variant form of shoal or 
sand-bar. 

7. — jump. — Hazard, take the risk of. 

— the life to come. The rest of life, the future. 

8. — still. Ever, always. 

— have judgment. Receive sentence. (Liddell.) 

— that. So that. 

9. — bloody instruction. The epithet is transferred — in- 
structions concerning bloodshed. Note the dramatic irony in 
11. 9-12; — Macbeth himself anticipates, though he does not 
realize it, the very lines on which the play is cast. 

11. — chalice. A goblet, a drinking cup; — now chiefly in re- 
ligious usage. The passage, 11. 10-12, is a stroke of genius 
working on a hint from Holinshed, § 10. 

13. — kinsman. See Macbeth, in Dramatis Personse, n. 

14. — his host. The safety of a guest was to the Scottish a 
sacred duty of hospitality. Cf. 

■, "To assail a wearied man were shame. 

And stranger is a holy name ; 
Guidance and rest, and food and fire, 
In vain he never must require." 

— Scott, Lady of the Lake, Canto IV. 

17. — faculties. Powers, prerogatives of office. (N. E. D.) 

18. — clear. Faultless. 

21. — like a . . . babe. Hence, sensitive. 

22. — cherubin. A customary form in English for cherub, 
(Ft. cherubin, cherub.) For the idea cf. Psalms, xviii, 10; 
Job, XXX, 22 (Malone). 

23.— sightless. Cf. I, v, 47, n. 

— couriers of the air. The winds. 



ACT I. sc. VII.] NOTES 119 

' 25. — tears shall drown the wind. "Alluding to the remission 
of the wind in a shower '^ (Johnson). 

27. — vaulting ambition. Macbeth resolves, yet makes no 
progress, like a poor horseman who vaults into the saddle only 
to fall on the other side. 

33. — all sorts. All classes. 

35.: — the hope. Lady Macbeth throws scorn on Macbeth's 
irresolution by ironically comparing his ambitious hope of king- 
ship to a drunkard's debauch. 

36. — dressed. The metaphor hardly fits hope as drunken, but 
in the condensed style of Macbeth figure is heaped on figure. 

39. — such. That is, as a fume of intoxication, not the de- 
votion of a man. The whole passage, 11. 39-45, should be com- 
pared with I, V, 17-26. 

42. — ornament of life. Cf. I, v, 28. 

45. — cat i' the adage. Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere 
plantas. — Mediaeval adage. It appears in English as early as 
1250. — '^Cat lufat visch, ac he nele (but he will not) his feth 
wete.'' (Sharman.) It is also found in the Proverbs of John 
Heywood, 1562: "The cat would eat fish and would not wet 
her feet." 

— adage. Proverb. 

— prithee. A corruption of "pray thee." 

48. — break. Disclose. 

51. — Nor time nor place. Some argue from this that Mac- 
beth and his wife had discussed the crime before the opening of 
the play. It more probably sums up the suggestion in the 
letter of Macbeth, and their subsequent talk indicated by I, 
V, 72. 

52. — adhere. Come together, hang together. 

54. — I have given suck. Note the means, comparing I, v, 41- 
49, to intensify the impression of the woman in Lady Macbeth. 

57. — boneless. Toothless. 

60. — screw . . . sticking. A metaphor more probably from 
the winding up of the cross-bow than from the tuning of the 
harp or violin. 

62. — the rather. All the more. 

63. — chamberlains. Grooms of the chamber. 

64. — wassail. Liquor used at carousals, specifically ale, 
mixed with a smaller amount of wine, sweetened and flavored 
with spices and fruit. 

— convince. Overcome; the etymological meaning. 



no MACBETH [act i. sc. vii. 

66. — fume. In a special sense "a noxious vapor supposed 
formerly to rise to the brain from the stomach (now chiefly as a 
result of drinking ' strong' or alcoholic liquors)/' (N. E. D.) 

— receipt of reason. Receptacle of reason; hence, the cere- 
brum, or upper part of the brain. 

67. — limbec. Alembic, a still; more particularly the cap of 
the still. 

68. — drenched. (Causative form of "drink.'') Drunken. 

71. — spongy. Soaked with drink; rare. "Sponge" for 
drunkard occurs in The Merchant of Venice, I, ii, 108. 

72. — quell. Murder. (A. S. quellan, to kill.) 

80. — corporal agent. Each physical power. 



Act Second 

This act represents the motive of evil ambition taking form 
in act. While the accomplished deed brings the realization of 
Macbeth's purpose near, it is the complication that will be his 
undoing; the counteraction is set going. 

Scene I 

Scene I. The prelude to assassination. Note the developing 
crescendo of the movement. 

The suggestions of the scene came from Holinshed's account 
of Donwald's murder of King Duff. See Holinshed, § 6. 

Setting. Inverness. Court. " A large court surrounded all or 
in part by an open gallery; chambers opening into that gallery; 
the gallery ascended into by stairs, open likewise; with addition 
of a college-like gateway, into which opens a porter's lodge; 
appears to have been the poet's idea of the place of this great 
action '' (Capell). 

The early editors placed this scene in the hall. Johnson 
argued against this, '^for Banquo sees the sky; it is not far from 
the bedchamber, as the conversation shows: it must be in the 
inner court of the castle, which Banquo might properly cross in 
his way to bed." 

4. — take my sword. Part of the suggestion of preparation 
for sleep. Fleance is acting as page to his father. 

— husbandry. Thrift; originally administration and man- 
agement of a household, hence economy. 

5. — thee. An illustration of a curious Elizabethan use of me, 
thee, him added to indicate the person interested; the construc- 
tion is called "ethical dative," and is now obsolete. 

— that. Probably his dagger or shield. 

6. — heavy summons. Call to sleep — transferred epithet. 

7. — Merciful powers. Banquo's character is taken up here 
from I, iii, 122 jf.; as before, Banquo offers in relation to the evil 
of the night a contrast to Macbeth. 

121 



122 MACBETH [act n. sc. i 

9. — gives way. Allows free scope, liberty, opportunity to. 
(N. E. D.) 

10, 11. — For the irregularity of metre, see I, iv, 43, 44, n. 

14. — largess. (Pron. lar'dgess.) Money or other gifts freely 
bestowed by a sovereign upon some special occasion of rejoicing. 
(Fr. largesse, bounty; L. largus, large, liberal.) 

— offices. The parts of a house given up to household work 
or service; here the persons in such service. 

16. — shut up. Probably, concluded, wound up, ended the day. 
If, however, the clause is absolute = "is shut up," "is given 
up to," then of. "Shut myself up in some other course," Othello, 
III, iv, 121; "I am wrapped in dismal thinking," AWs Well, V, 
iii, 128. 

18. — became the servant to defect. Was unable to make all 
perfect (in his hospitality). Macbeth's rhetoric always appears 
in his protestations. 

19.— free. Freely. (Abbott, § 1.) 

20. — weird. See I, iii, 32, n. " Weird " is here metrically two 
syllables. (Abbott, § 485.) 

22. — entreat an hour to serve. Beg an hour for the purpose. 

23. — business. See I, vii, 31, n. 

25. — cleave to my consent. Think with me, — as I do; cf. 
"with one consent." 

26. — so. Provided. 

28. — bosom franchised. Enfranchised, free, not under the 
power of evil. 

— allegiance clear. His loyalty to his feudal lord unstained. 

29. — counselled. Ready to take advice. 

31. — drink. The night cup; cf. II, ii, 6, n. 

32. — she strike. The subjunctive in indirect narration. (Ab- 
bott, § 369.) 

— the bell. Note the preparation for the suspense of 1. 62. 

— get thee. Cf. 1. 5, n. 

33. — Is this a dagger. Macbeth's crime begins here to disease 
his mind; notice the imaginative, picturesque cast of his thought. 

The passage was perhaps suggested to Shakespeare by his 
reading in an earlier part of Holinshed: — " In the night season in 
the air were seen fiery swords and other weapons move in a long 
rank, after, coming together on a heap, and being changed into a 
huge flame as it had been a fire-brand, it then vanished away." 

36. — sensible. Perceptible to the senses. 

39. — heat-oppressed. Fevered. 



ACT II. sc. I.] NOTES 123 

41. — As this, etc. Shakespeare is ever conscious of his work 
as an acted story. 

42. — marshall'st me the way. A marshal is charged with 
the arrangement of ceremonies, processions; the dagger is here 
used as his baton. 

46. — dudgeon. Originally a kind of wood used by turners, 
especially for the handles of knives and daggers; according to 
Gerarde's Herbal, 1597, the wood was boxwood; hence the hilt 
of a dagger made of this wood. (N. E. D.) 

— gouts. Drops of liquid, especially blood. (Fr. goute, drop; 
L. gutta.) 

48. — informs. Takes form, appears in a visible shape; 
obsolete in this sense. 

49. — now o'er the one-half world. The imagination of Mac- 
beth here paints night as the season of crime; cf. I, v, 50, III, ii, 
46-53, etc. 

50. — abuse. Use amiss, misuse, turn from a right use to a 
wrong one. 

51. — curtained sleep. The sleepers in their curtained beds; 
transferred epithet. 

— witchcraft. Figurative, for witches. 

52. — pale Hecate's offerings. The pronunciation of Hecate 
{he¥a te) was in El. E. usually hek'at. Hecate was a Greek 
goddess, high in the regard of Zeus, by whom she was given 
power in heaven, earth, and ocean; she was invoked at all sacri- 
fices, as the medium of gods and mankind. Later she was 
confused with Persephone, queen of the lower world; and with 
the breaking down of pagan religion, she lingered on through 
the Middle Ages to Shakespeare's day as a deity of ghosts 
and magic. She is represented as haunting crossways and 
graves. 

— withered murder. The murderer with face drawn or 
wrinkled with crime; the abstract is again used for concrete. 
Observe the highly wrought style of the language throughout; 
cf. I, iii, 40. 

53. — Alarumed. Aroused from rest. Alarum is a variant of 
'^ alarm" due to the prolonging of the r. 

54. — howl's his watch. Who marks the night by his howls 
as the watchman by his cry. 

55. — Tarquin's ravishing strides. A reminiscence of Chaucer's 
"Legend of Lucretia,'' "And in the night full thiefly gan he 
stalk," Legend of Good Women^ 1781. Shakespeare had already 



124 MACBETH [ACT II. sc. II. 

used Chaucer ^s word — "Into the chamber wicked he stalks/' 
Rape of LucrecCy 364. 

The reference is to Sextus, son of Tarquinius Superbus, King 
of Rome; he ravished Lucretia, wife of Tarquinius CoUatinus — 
a crime that resulted in the expulsion of kings from Rome by 
Junius Brutus. 

— strides. Ff. read "sides'"; Pope emended to "strides''; 
Liddel suggests "slides," used in El. E. to indicate a gliding 
movement. 

58.— The very stones. Cf. Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 232. See 
also Luke, xix, 40, — "If these should hold their peace the 
stones would immediately cry out." 

— whereabout. In Mod. E., whereabouts. 

59. — take. Assume, take on. 

— the present horror. The horror of the moment. 

61. — gives. The third person plural in -s is extremely com- 
mon in the Folio (Abbott, § 333). It may be regarded, not as a 
grammatical error, but as a northern English plural inflection 
creeping at times into standard English. 

63. — knell. The "passing" bell, rung solemnly immediately 
after a death. 

Scene II 

Scene U. This scene renders the mental reaction from the 
murder accomplished. To give the murder itself would keep 
the action in the crude region of the concrete, the physical. The 
imagination stirred by the preparation in the preceding scene 
completes the deed in thought, and Macbeth on his return from 
the deed enters at once into the world of imagination. The 
merely physical picture is almost entirely held in reserve for 
V, i, when the physical reaction finds expression. 

The suggestions for the scene in Holinshed ar6 very slight. 
See § 6. 

1. — hath made me bold. Does Lady Macbeth mean she took 
liquor? The negative is maintained by Mr. Horace Furness in 
the Harvard Magazine for September, 1908; he holds that it 
was only the drunken stupor of the grooms that enabled her to 
go boldly about her purpose. 

3. — owl. As a portent of evil the owl occurs frequently from 
Roman days. It is mentioned in connection with Caesar's 
death by Plutarch and by Ovid. Cf. " The owl eek, that of death 
the bode (news) bringeth." — Chaucer, Assembly of Foules, 1343. 



ACT II. sc. II.] NOTES 125 

— bellman. Cotgrave (1611) defines his main duty: "Resveil- 
leur. An awaker; and particularly, a common Bellman, 
which in the dead of night goes round about a City, tink- 
ling, and teUing of the hours.'' (Verity.) The bellman, 
or town crier, formerly announced deaths, and called on 
the faithful to pray for the souls of the departed. 
(N. E. D.) 

4. — the stern' St good-night. That is, the .farewell of death. 

5. — surfeited. Filled to satiety. 

— grooms. Servingmen, male attendants. (A. S. gumay 
man.) 

6. — mock their charge. Make their duty of watching seem 
ridiculous. 

— drugged their possets. Cf. King Duncan's trickery of the 
Danish army — giving them drink and victuals mixed with the 
juice of mekilwort berries (p. 86). 

— posset. ^^Hot milk poured On ale or sack, having sugar, 
grated biscuit, eggs, with other ingredients boiled in it, which 
goes all to a curd."" (The Academy of Armory j Randle Holme, 
1638.) 

— that. So that. See I, ii, 58, n. 

12. — 'em. The old personal pronoun ^em (A. S. dat. pi. Mm, 
heom) still maintained itself in El. E. against the demonstra- 
tive them; it is now only colloquial and regarded commonly as 
an abbreviation of them. 

— Had he not resembled. Memory characterizes Lady Mac- 
beth as imagination does Macbeth. 

14. — my husband. For the meaning Lady Macbeth puts into 
these words, compare I, vii, 50 /. 

16. — crickets cry. According to Grimm the cricket foretold 
death. Cf. Dryden and Lee's CEdipus — "Owls, ravens, 
crickets, seem the watch of death'" 

24. — them. Reflexive, themselves. 

26.— Amen. Cf. Merchant of Venice, III, i, 22 /. 

27. — as. See I, iv, 11, n. 

28. — listening their fear. To their fear. In El. E. the prep- 
osition is also sometimes omitted before the word for the thing 
heard after verbs of hearing. (Abbott, § 199.) 

— hangman's. In a general sense, an executioner or tor- 
turer; hence here with bloody hands. 

34. — so, it will make us mad. Note the dramatic irony and 
tragic suggestion in these words. 



126 MACBETH [act n. sc. ii. 

35. — Methought. It seemed to me. (A. S. me thyncthy it 
seems to me. This verb is archaic; think comes from another 
verb, thencan.) 

— a voice cry. This was suggested by King Kenneth's re- 
morse after the mdrder of Malcolm Duff, recorded by Holin- 
shed. ^' It chanced that a voice was heard as he was in bed in 
the night time to take his rest, uttering unto him these or the 
like words in effect. 'Think not, Kenneth, that the wicked 
slaughter of Malcolm Duff by thee contrived is kept secret from 
the knowledge of the eternal God.' . . . The king with this voice 
being stricken into great dread and terror, passed the night 
without any sleep coming in his eyes.'' 

37. — Sleep that knits up. Macbeth's imagination plays upon 
the idea; his words are tragic anticipation; c/. Ill, ii, 17 ff. 
Cf. also^. Henry IV, III, i. Invocations to sleep are com- 
mon among Elizabethan poets. The most famous, outside 
Shakespeare, is Sidney's sonnet beginning "Come Sleep, O 
Sleep! the certain knot of peace," which is here echoed. 

— ravelled sleave. Sleave (Sw. sleif — knot of ribbon), anything 
matted or ravelled, hence, unspun silk; spoken of here as tangled. 

39. — second course. ^' In For to Serve a Lord, written at the 
end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
and printed on p. 366 of the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, the 
' second course ' is described as the substantial course of a dinner, 
with a long list of dishes, p. 370, preceded by the 'potage' and 
followed by the ' dessert.'" (Liddell.) 

45. — noble strength. Lady Macbeth is prompting Macbeth 
to assume a virtue when he has it not. 

51. — I am afraid to think, etc. This iterates the lines on 
Macbeth's nature; cf. I, ii, 137 /. 

53. — The sleeping and the dead . . . pictures. With no more 
power to harm than paintings. 

55. — painted devil. A familiar reference in Elizabethan life. 
The devil on a *' painted cloth," or imitation tapestry, hung 
about the stage of the miracle play. 

56, 57. — gild . . . guilt. The touch of humor, frequently a 
pun, sometimes comes in Shakespeare at intense moments of 
the play; cf. Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 123; Richard II, II, i, 74. 
In Elizabethan literature gold was considered red; c/. II, iii, 10, 
King John, II, i, 316; hence by transference ''to gild" could 
mean to smear with red blood. J:.-. 

60. — Neptune. The Roman god of the sea. JWith^ij^jrs \i»V tj 



AGT. II. sc. III.] NOTES 127 

62. — multitudinous seas. Of manifold diversity, vast in 
number or variety, or both. Cf. Homer's "innumerable 
laughter of the sea.'' 

63. — one red. One, all of a kind. Macbeth in his morbid 
imagination now sees everything red. 

65. — heart so white. So great a coward. The heart and the 
liver were considered the seats of courage, and lack of courage 
was ascribed to lack of blood in these organs. 

68. — constancy; Your constancy gone, you are left helpless. 

70. — night-gown. A loose gown especially used for putting 
on at night; a dressing-gown, often made of elegant material and 
furred; obsolete in this sense. 

73. — To know my deed. Knowing what I have done, I would 
I did not know that I myself had done it. 

74. — Wake Duncan, etc. The reaction from the crime here 
finds its highest expression. 

Scene III 

Scene HE. This scene is the presentation of the next crisis 
— the discovery of the crime. 

The Porter's soliloquy allows suspense to gather; his part, too, 
is full of dramatic irony — he thinks here to play porter to hell- 
gate and such a post is at that moment in a sense his very place. 

Coleridge attributed " this low soliloquy of the Porter and his 
few speeches after ... to some other hand," but De Quincey 
in a brilliant bit of psychological analysis has successfully de- 
fended the scene as great art. The breaking in of the e very-day 
world upon the high-strung passions of the murderers suddenly 
intensifies and makes us conscious of our emotions. {On the 
Knocking on the Gate in ^^ Macbeth.'') 

The scene owes little to Hohnshed. See §§ 7, 9. 

2. — hell-gate. The morality plays had familiarized the 
Elizabethans with the idea of the gate or mouth of hell into 
which devils drove or enticed lost souls. 

— old. Intensive of great, cf. the colloquial use of ''grand"; 
it is still a dialect word in Warwickshire. (Wright, Dialect 
Dictionary.) 

•—turning. The verbal used as an ordinary noun with "of" 
omitted. (Abbott, § 93.) 

4. — Beelzebub. More correctly Baalzebub, a Baal, or god of 
flies. (The significance of the name is that he gathers every 



128 MACBETH [act ii. sc. hi. 

simple thing in his web.) He was held by the Jews to be a 
prince of devils; cf. Matthew, x, 12; Luke, xi, 15. 

— farmer that hanged himself. " There is a story of such an 
event in the small tract of Peacham, entitled, The Truth of our 
Times revealed out of one Man^s Experience, 1638. The farmer 
had hoarded hay when it was five pounds ten shillings per load, 
and when it unexpectedly fell to forty and thirty shillings, he 
hung himself. . . . No doubt such stories are of all ages." 
(Hunter, quot. Furness.) There was prospect of an abundant 
harvest in the summer and autumn of 1606, a fact which Malone 
took into consideration when endeavoring to determine the 
date of the play. 

6. — napkins. Handkerchiefs; its universal meaning in 
Shakespeare. 

— enow. From the declined forms of A. S. genoh, enough, 
came enow (pron. enow), from the undeclined form comes 
enough. Enow is naturally found with plurals. 

8. — other devil's name. The Porter's theology or demonology 
is limited — had he been learned he would have said Behemoth 
or Demogorgon. 

— equivocator. "Trained up in the devilish doctrine of 
Equivocaiion, and that they may swear what they list, with 
mental reservation.'' — Barnabe Rich, The Description of Irelandy 
1610. Warburton, followed by Malone, took this allusion as 
one of the things determining the date of the play. In 
March, 1606, Henry Garnet, superior of the order of Jesuits 
in England, avowed the doctrine of equivocation when 
on trial for his life for complicity in the treason of the 
Gunpowder Plot. 

14. — stealing out of a French hose. French hose, or knee 
breeches, were of two sorts — loose in the style called round 
hose, and close fitting. The Porter refers with a touch of irony 
to the latter. 

15. — goose. A tailor's smoothing-iron; so called from the 
resemblance of the handle to a goose's neck. (N. E. D.) 

18. — devil-porter. Elizabethan Enghsh is characterized by 
a rich linguistic growth — new words, new compounds. 
(Abbott, § 430.) 

19. — primrose way. The flowery gay path. The idea is ex- 
pressed in Hamlet, I, iii, 50, and AlVs Well, II, iv, 55. 

21 . — remember the porter. The opening of the gate brings out 
the customary phrase in suggesting a gratuity. 



ACT II. sc. III.] NOTES 129 

24. — the second cock. According to Romeo and Juliet^ IV, 
iv, 3, 4, three o'clock in the morning. (Malone.) 

29. — to cast. To throw to the ground in wresthng; obsolete 
except in dialect. 

35. — slipped the hour. Let the hour slip by. 

36. — joyful trouble. Cf. I, iv, 11. Another illustration of the 
condensed style, here in the figure of oxymoron, that charac- 
terizes the play. 

40. — limited. Appointed. 

42. — night . . . unruly. Holinshed speaks of no portents in 
connection with Duncan's death. Shakespeare draws them in 
part from Holinshed 's account of the murder of King Malcolm 
and of King Duff; in part, however, they were suggested to him 
by the portents of ftie death of Caesar (see his Julius CcesaVj I, 
iii, II, ii). 

44. — lamentings heard. The Bodach Glay, or Gray Spectre, 
is the Scotch parallel to the Irish banshee, who intimates ap- 
proaching disaster in a family with wails and shrieks (Brewer). 

45. — prophesying. Metrically three syllables. (Abbott, § 
470.) 

46. — combustion. Violent excitement, tumult, a sense "ex- 
ceedingly common in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies." (N. E. D.) 

— confused events. Events full of confusion, that is, of up- 
heaval. 

47. — obscure bird. The owl, whose time is night. (L. 
ohscurus, dark); cf. Julius Coesar, I, iii, 26. Obscure is here ac- 
cented on the first syllable. (Abbott, § 492.) 

48. — the earth Was feverous, etc. This omen is derived 
from Holinshed's account of the death of King Malcolm, 1040. 
See also Julius Coesar, I, iii, 4. 

51. — A fellow. Counterpart, match. 

54. — Confusion. Tumult, disorder. Cf. 1. 46, above. 

56. — The Lord's anointed temple. Two ideas are here con- 
densed: — the body as the temple of the spirit (1. Corinthians, 
iii, 16, 17) and the anointing of the head of the king as a ruler 
by the grace of God (1. Samuel, xvi, 1-6.) 

—stole. Stolen. See I, iv, 3, n. (Abbott, §§ 343, 344.) 

60. — a new Gorgon. The Gorgons were terrible mythological 
females the sight of whose face turned the beholder into stone. 
They are best known from the story of Perseus, and his con- 
flict with one of them. Medusa. 



130 MACBETH [act n. sc. m. 

62. — Ring the alarum-bell. This intensifies by clangor the 
excitement of the scene; it provides the means for ending the 
scene with a large group of personages. 

64. — death's counterfeit. A picture or image of death. For 
the idea cf. I, iii, 97. For '^ counterfeit/' in the sense of picture, 
cf. ^^fair Portia's counterfeit," Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 115. 

66. — the great doom's image. A picture of the judgment 
day; cj. Revelation, xx, 11-15. 

67. — sprites. A variant form of spirits. 

68. — To countenance. To keep in countenance (by acting 
in the same way), to be in keeping with. (N. E. D.) 

69. — business. Ado, disturbance, commotion; now obsolete, 
but used in this sense in Holinshed. (N. E. D.) 

70. — trumpet calls to parley. A trumpet call announced the 
request for parley, or discussion of points under truce; here 
figurative for the alarm-bell. 

81. — mortality. Mortal existence. 

82. — toys. Trifles; frequent in El. E. in this sense. 

83. — the mere lees. Nothing but dregs. 

84. — vault. Wine-cellar. 

90. — badged. Marked as with a badge. 

99. — expedition. Promptness. 

100. — the pauser, reason. Cf. ^^Such a hare is madness 
the youth to skip over the meshes of good counsel the cripple." 
— Merchant of Venice, I, ii, 19 /. 

101. — silver skin. See I, iv, 15, n. 

— golden blood. See II, ii, 56, 57, n. 

105. — Unmannerly breeched with gore. Their daggers were 
not bare, but covered with blood: the covering was not the 
proper one (the sheath) but an improper one — murderous 
blood, and disgusting to look at. 

108. — Help me hence. The question as to whether Lady 
Macbeth here faints or merely feigns to faint has been debated. 
It may reasonably be taken that Shakespeare here gives the 
very first indication of the collapse of her nature overwrought by 
her will. 

110. — argument. A brief statement of a story; a literary 
sense. 

111. — here. Pronounced here as a dissyllable. (Abbott, § 
480.) 

— fate, Hid in an auger-hole. For death by the stab of a 
dagger, cf. Richard II, III, ii, 169, 170. 



ACT II. sc. IV.] NOTES 131 

115. — upon the foot of motion. Yet started. 

116. — naked frailties. Our scantily clad frail bodies, used 
especially with reference to Macbeth, see II, ii, 70, but even 
Macduff and the others have come hastily, probably in '^ night- 
gowns.'^ 

118. — question. Examine judicially: now rare in this sense. 
(N. E. D.) 

120. — In the great hand of God I stand. The great enuncia- 
tion of Banquo's character. Browning uses the same thought 
effectively at the close of Instans Tyr annus. This phrase joins 
the idea of the protecting hand of God familiar to the Psalmist 
(Psalm xxxvii, 24) with the idea of God as a fortress (Psalm 
Ixxi, 13). 

121. — pretence. Pretext. 

123. — put on manly readiness. Arm and equip ourselves. 

124. — the Hall. ^^The large public room in a mansion or 
palace . . . which till nearly 1600 greatly surpassed in size and 
importance the private rooms or bowers. '^ (N. E. D.) 

125. — consort. Keep company with. 

127. — does easy. Adjective for adverb. (Abbott, § 1.) 

130. — the near in blood. Cf. Hamlet^ I, ii, 65. 

135. — shift away. Move away. 

— warrant. Sanction, justification. 

— theft Which steals itself. Which itself is stealing (away). 

Scene IV 

Scene IV. This brief scene serves as conclusion to the 
crisis of Duncan^s murder, and as transition to Act III — 
Macbeth as king. The dialogue concerning the omens is 
intended to develop the large significance of King Dun- 
can's death. 

The suggestions of detail come chiefly from Holinshed, but in 
Holinshed the omens concern the murder of Kings Duff and 
Malcolm. See § 7. 

4. — trifled. Reduced to a trifle, made trivial. 

— father. A term in frequent use for the aged. 

6. — his bloody stage. Shakespeare has frequent references 
such as this to the theatre; they are not only concrete and pic- 
turesque as figures, but they aid the illusion of reality in which 
we regard the play itself; cf. I, iii, 128; V, v, 24, etc. 

7. — dark night. /. e., eclipse. 



132 MACBETH [act n. sc. iv. 

12 /. — falcon . . . killed. The owl, living upon mice, brings 
down the lordly falcon; the omen is of the perversion of 
nature. 

— towering. A term of falconry, — flying high; "soar, or 
flying aloft, termed also towering. '' (Randle Holme, Academy 
of Armory.) 

— pride of place. Proud point of highest elevation. 

15. — minions. See I, ii, 19, n. 

24. — suborned. Bribed. 

28. — ravin up. Eat up ravenously. 

29. — like. Likely, probable; now dialectal. 

30. — The sovereignty will fall. The custom of the country is 
so given by Bellenden: "He was nearest of blood thereto by 
terms of the old laws made after the death of King Fergus, 
"When young children were unable to govern the crown, the 
nearest of their blood shall reign," p. 260. 

31. — named. Nominated, designated. 

' — Scone. The little town of Scone, a few miles above Perth, 
contained a palace and an abbey. In the abbey was treasured 
the famous stone of destiny, now in the coronation chair in 
Westminster Abbey, upon which all Scottish kings were 
crowned. 

33. — Colmekill. This was the cellaj or monastery, of St. 
Columba in the island of Zona. During the seventh and 
eighth centuries it was the most famous religious centre in 
Scotland. According to tradition the early kings of Scot- 
land were buried in the church-yard. " lona, otherwise 
called Columkill, in which is an abbey wherein the Kings 
of Scotland were commonly buried from the time of 
Fergus the Second unto Malcolm Canmore; who erected 
the monastery of Dunfermline, where sithence (since) that 
time the most part of our Kings have been of custom 
interred. '' — Holinshed. 

"There is as yet remaining amongst the old ruins a burial- 
place, or church-yard, common to all the noble families of the 
West Isles, wherein there are three tombs, higher than the rest, 
distant every one from another a little space, and three houses 
situated to the east, builded severally upon the three tombs, 
upon the west parts whereof there are stones graven, . . . 
bearing the title: The Tombs of the Kings of Scotland. It is said 
that there were 48 Kings of Scotland buried there. The tomb 
on the right side bears this inscription: The Tombs of the 



ACT II. sc. IV.] NOTES 133 

Kings of Ireland. ... It that is on the left side . . . The 
Tombs of the Kings of Norway."— The Description of Scotland 
(c. 1600)— ^' The Isles of Scotland.^' 

36.— Fife. See I, ii, 48, n. 

40. — benison. Benediction. 



Act Third 

The third act presents Macbeth's motive realized in fact — he 
and his wife are King and Queen. This situation has a three- 
fold aspect — the mental state of the crowned murderers, the un- 
certainty of a sovereignty acquired as theirs has been acquired, 
the question of the succession. Out of the last a definite sub- 
action has been evolved. Associates in victory, Macbeth and 
Banquo have parted company. The seeds of separation were 
sown by the Sisters in their promise of the succession to Banquo's 
children; but the cleavage grew, too, from Macbeth's guilt. His 
crime made him an outcast, alienated from honest men; while 
Banquo 's nature reacting from temptation is forever assured 
— in the great hand of God he stands. To fix the succession, to 
rid himself of the pressure and reproach of a finer nature, Mac- 
beth has Banquo murdered. This subaction works to produce 
the splendid dramatic climax of III, iv, 50. With this 
climax comes the 'Hurn'^ of the play; the tide of life, strive 
as he will, henceforth sets against Macbeth. Out of his 
efforts to save himself arises the subaction in the falling 
movement of the play that centres in Macduff. 

Scene I 

Scene I. This scene presents the situation of Macbeth 
crowned — aspects of it viewed by Banquo, by Macbeth; the 
subaction develops into conscious motive and action against 
Banquo. 

In the matter of the death of Banquo and escape of Fleance, 
Shakespeare follows Hohnshed, § § 10, 11. 

3. — playedst most foully. How the play echoes! c/. I, v, 
22, 23. 

7. — shine. Are illustriously exemplified. 

9. — they. Refers to ''speeches'' in 1. 7. 

— oracles. Something reputed to give oracular replies or 
advice; for example, the oracle of Delphi. 

134 



ACT III. sc. i.y NOTES ' 135 

lOa.^sennet. A technical term for a particular fanfare of 
trumpets, the exact notes of which are unknown. It seems to 
have differed from a ''flourish"; cf. Dekker's Satiromastix, 
"Trumpets sound a flourish, and then a sennet." (Grove's 
Dictionary of Music and Musicians.) 

11. — our chief guest. Banquo. 

13. — all-thing. Entirely. 

14. — solemn. Ceremonious, formal; "a solemn supper" was 
a conventional phrase like our "formal dinner." 

— supper. "With us the nobility, gentry, and students do 
ordinarily go to dinner, at eleven before noon, and to supper at 
five, or between five and six at afternoon" — Harrison, Descrip- 
tion of England. This supper is formal and later (see I. 41), 
parhaps kept late in deference to Banquo. 

16. — command upon. In El. E. "upon" was used more 
freely than to-day; the usage is retained in the phrase "claim 
upon." (Abbott, § 191.) 

— the which. Used in El. E. for its demonstrative force. 

17.^ — a most indissoluble tie. Banquo implies their common 
relation to the Witches and their prophecies. 

20. — your good advice. This presents Banquo's place still as 
counsellor; c/. II, i, 22. 

21. — still. Ever, always. 

— grave. Fraught with wisdom. 

25. — the better. That is, than usual, than I expect, — espe- 
cially well. 

27. — twain. Two; from the declined OE. form, twegn. 

28. — My lord, I will not. Irony of the drama; cf. Ill, iv, for 
Banquo's fulfilment of his promise. 

29. — bestowed. Disposed of in some place; — archaic in this 
sense. 

32. — Invention. Fabrication. 

33. — cause of state. Affair of state to be decided. 

43. — while then. Until then, meanwhile; " while " in sense of 
"till" is still in dialect use. 

— God be with you. To scan this line the phrase must be 
contracted, as it has been in our speech, into the familiar " good- 
bye." (Abbott, §461.) 

44. — sirrah. A word of address generally equivalent to 
"fellow" or "sir," with an angry or contemptuous meaning; 
particularly a word of address to inferiors; it was also used, 
without contempt, to children. 



136 ' MACBETH [act m. sc. i. 

47. — But to be. Without being, — unless I am. 

50.— would. Should. ^^ Would," Hke ''should," "could,'' 
^^ ought,"- is frequently used conditionally. (Abbott, § 329.) 

51. — to. In addition to. 

53. — but he. He excepted. El. E. uses both the nomina- 
tive and the objective construction with '' but." (Abbott, § 117.) 

55. — genius is rebuked, etc. ''Genius" means here spirit, 
personality, determining his destiny. The reference to Antony 
and Octavius Caesar is based on Plutarch's accounts of the sooth- 
sayer's advice to Antony: — "For thy demon, said he (that is 
to say, the good angel and spirit that kqepeth thee), is afraid of 
his: and being courageous and high when he is alone, becometh 
fearful and timorous when he cometh near unto the other." 
(North's Plutarch, Antonius). Shakespeare reexpressed the 
idea later in Antony and Cleopatra, II, iii, 19 ff. 

61. — sceptre. A staff of office, the emblem of sovereignty. 

62. — unlineal hand. Banquo's. Neither Banquo nor any 
of his line had yet married into the royal house of Scotland. 
Later through Walter Stewart his line became so related. 

64.— filed. Defiled. (Abbott, § 460.) 

66. — rancors. Here still with a physical suggestion — ran- 
cidity. 

— vessel of my peace. This is an echo of Scripture; cf. 
Romans, ix, 22 /. 

67. — eternal jewel. Immortal soul. This is an echo of the 
compact with the devil such as Faust made; see Introduction. 

68. — Enemy of Man. " Your adversary the devil," — 1. Peter, 
V, 8; also Luke, x, 19. 

70. — list. The palisades or other barriers enclosing a space 
set apart for tilting. (Usually plural as the equivalent of the 
O. Fr. lisse, barriers of a tournament.) 

71. — champion me. Act as champion, or contestant in the 
list against whom Macbeth can fight. 

— to the utterance; The English rendering of Fr. a outrance, 
" to the extreme," used of a fight to the death. Again dramatic 
irony lends color to the words. 

73. — Was it not yesterday . . . ? The suggestion of scenes 
not played by which the dramatist briefly fills in the detail 
of life. 

79. — passed in probation. Reviewed the proofs with you. 

80. — borne in hand. Kept dangling with false promises. 

— crossed. Made to fail. 



ACT III. sc. I.] NOTES 137 

— instruments. Topis, means. The second syllable is here 
almost ignored in scansion. 

It is clear from this passage that " These two are not assassins 
by profession . . c but soldiers whose fortunes, according to 
Macbeth, have been ruined by Banquo's influence." (Clark- 
Wright.) 

87. — gospelled. Imbued with the principles of the gospel; see 
"But I say unto you, Love your enemies," etc. — Matthew, v, 44. 

91. — catalogue. List; obsolete in this simple sense. 

93. — Shoughs. (Pron. shuff.) Variation of "shock," a 
shaggy dog (Johnson). 

— water-rugs. Possibly the dog trained to draw water; 
" to rug " is to draw (Wright, Dialect Dictionary). " This kind of 
dog is called in Latin Aquarius, in English a water-drawer. 
And these be of the greatest and weightiest sort, drawing water 
out of wells and deep pits, by a wheel which they turn about by 
the moving of their burthenous bodies." — Of English Dogs, the 
Diversities, the Natures and the Properties, by Johannes Caius, 
drawn into English by Abraham Fleming, 1576. 

Another explanation, of doubtful value, regards a water- 
rug as a shaggy hunting dog, a sort of water-spaniel. 

— demi-wolves. An animal popularly supposed to be a cross 
between a wolf and a dog. 

— clept. Called. 

94. — valued file. List of dogs valued for their qualities. 

96. — housekeeper. Mastiff or bandog; called villaticus, keeper 
or watchdog, by Caius. 

99. — Particular addition. Special title; c/. I, iii, 106, n. 

— from. Apart from. 

—bill. Written hst. 

101.— the file. That is, the valued file, 1. 95. 

105. — Grapples you to the heart. Cf. Hamlet, I, iii, 63. 

106. — in. During. 

111. — tugged with fortune. Dragged down by ill luck. 

112. — set my life. A metaphor from gambling. 

115. — distance. The short space separating duellists; the 
figure implies that his life and mine are at enmity, so that like 
a swordsman Banquo fights Macbeth and threatens his death. 

117. — near' St. Most vital part. 

118. — barefaced. Undisguised, avowed, open; archaic in 
this sense. (N. E. D.) 

119. — avouch it. Openly take the responsibility of it. 



138 • MACBETH [act m. sc. n. 

120.— For. For the sake of. (Abbott, § 150.) 

121.— may not. Must not. (Abbott, § 310.) 

— but wail. But must wail. 

122. — Who. Modern grammar would require "whom," but 
in El. E. "who" is not always inflected when standing in the 
objective relation. (Abbott, § 274.) 

127. — spirits. Here monosyllabic in scansion; the old pro- 
nunciation is preserved in our "sprites." 

129. — Acquaint you with the perfect spy. By means of an 
accomplished spy I will acquaint you with the time — the very 
moment. This spy becomes the third murderer, and shows 
that he knows his trade (c/. Ill, iii, 12-14). Macbeth is accom- 
plished in treachery; he has already begun to use the spies that 
later (III, iv, 131 /.) he has in every household. "Perfect" 
here means thorough, all-sufficient, accomplished. 

If the line is, as many think, misprinted in the Folio, a simple 
emendation would be " the perfect spot, the time, the mo- 
ment of it." 

— with. By means of. 

131. — something. Used adverbially, like "somewhat." (Ab- 
bott, § 68.) 

— always thought. Always considered, provided always. 

132. — clearness. Freedom from anything obstructive 
(N. E. D.), here from suspicion. 

133. — leave no rubs nor botches. In modern colloquial par- 
lance "to make a clean job of it." Some regard "rubs" here as 
figurative, from its meaning of rough spots in the game of 
bowls. 

137. — Resolve yourselves. Make up your minds. 

—apart. A suggestion for the necessary clearing of the stage. 

138. — anon. At once. 

Scene II 

Scene II. This scene opens with a touch of the inner life of 
Lady Macbeth, parallel to the opening of the preceding, as re- 
gards Macbeth. It turns then into dialogue of the two, in 
which Macbeth reaches wonderful heights of demoniac poetry 
in depicting his own state and his resolve on renewed recourse 
to murder. By comparison with I, vii, we can see what devel- 
opment, or degradation, of soul has gone on to change the re- 
lations of the two toward crime. Night as the season of crime 
is still the atmosphere of the action. 



ACT III. sc. II.] NOTES 139 

The scene is entirely Shakespeare's interpretation of the 
Holinshed story. 

4. — Nought's had, etc. The only revelation of the perturbed 
spirit of Lady Macbeth, till we come to its full disclosure in V, i. 
She keeps, however, her secret misery from her husband's knowl- 
edge. 

10. — Using. Staunton would read "Nursing." 

11.— All remedy. "AH'' in the sense of' 'any," (Abbott, 

§12.) 

12.— What's done is done. Cf. V, i, 65, 66. 

13. — scorched. The reading of Folio ^ amended by Theo- 
bald to " scotch'd" ; but " scorch " in the sense of " cut slightly " 
is found elsewhere in Shakespeare, see Comedy of Errors^ V, i, 
183. "To scorch your face and to disfigure you." Note also 
(Liddell) "scortch {i. e. scratch) not the board," Babees Book, 
1577. 

14. — close. — Join. 

16. — the frame of things. The order and constitution of the 
world; cf. "The time is out of joint," — Hamlet^ I, v, 189. 

— both the worlds. The whole passage is a defiance of this 
world and of the world to come; cf. the similar defiance of 
Laertes, Hamlet , IV, v, 130 ff. 

18. — these terrible dreams. Note the echo of II, ii, 35 and 
the developing force of Macbeth's imagination. 

21. — torture . . . to lie. An allusion to the torture of the 
rack, on which the limbs were wrenched with ropes and pulley. 

22. — ecstasy. Frenzy. (Med. L. extasis, put out of place.) 

23. — he sleeps well. While "Macbeth doth murder sleep," 
II, ii, 35. 

24.— his. Its. 

25. — Malice domestic. Revolt at home, in the state; cf. 
" Domestic fury and fierce civil strife Shall cumber all the parts 
of Italy." — Julius Coesar, III, i, 264. 

— foreign levy. The raising of troops outside his borders. 
The two — " malice domestic and foreign levy " — are now before 
Macbeth as the dangers of his throne. This line is full of tragic 
anticipation to be worked out in Acts Four and Five. 

27. — gentle my lord. " My lord," as a title, is thought of as one 
word, hence the place of the adjective; cf. Fr. Monsieur y milord. 

— sleek o'er. Smooth over. 

— rugged. Frowning. 

28. — among. In pronunciation here abbreviated to 'mong. 



140 MACBETH [act m. sc. n. 

30. — let your remembrance, etc. Keep Banquo especially in 
mind. Pronounced almost like four syllables by prolonging 
the r. (Abbott, § 477.) 

31.— present him eminence. Show him distinguished honor. 

32. — unsafe the while. For meanwhile we are still unsafe, so 
that. 

34. — vizards. (Pron. viz'ards.) Masks. 

35.— You must leave this. Cf. II, ii; 33, 34. 

36. — full of scorpions. The scorpion is the insect whose sting 
has been proverbial, from Biblical times, for torment. 

37. — lives: For the s-plural see I, iii, 147, n. 

38. — nature's copy. ^' Copy " here has reference to the tenure 
of land by copyhold. Nature's copy is here the term of life 
man holds from nature. 

— eterne. Everlasting. Not an abbreviation of '* eternal/' 
but from the Lat. oeternus. 

40 ff. — Ere the bat, etc. The atmosphere again suffuses the 
action; compare with other descriptions of night that come 
from Macbeth's lips. 

41. — cloistered flight. The bat, hanging in cloisters in the 
daytime, begins to emerge with the dusk. 

— black. Because associated with the things of night and evil. 

42. — shard-borne. Borne along on the shards or wing-covers. 

43. — yawning peal. The peal for sleep; cf. the curfew. 

45. — dearest chuck. A familiar form of endearment; the 
word is, of course, connected with chicken; — a daring touch of 
human nature, this, in such a moment. 

46. — seeling night. Night that closes up the sight of the 
world. "Seeling" is a term of falconry; "seeled, or seeling, is 
when a hawk first taken hath her eyes drawn so up, or blinded, 
with a thread put through her eye-lids that she sees not, or so 
very little, the better to make her endure the hood." — Randle 
Holme, The Academy of Armory. 

49. — bond. A figure from legal obligation such as mortgage. 

50. — paled. The reading of Folio \ '' pale," calls for the mean- 
ing "paUid with terror and anguish" (cf. h 17 /.). But Staun- 
ton's emendation of "paled," i. e. "bound in," has the support 
of the expansion of this very line in III, iv, 24, 25, and is here 
adopted. Cf., too, ^' How are we packed and bounded in a 
pale,"— i. Henry VI, IV, ii, 45. 

— thickens. Grows dull; cf, "My sight was ever thick," — 
Julius Coesary V, iii, 21. 



ACT III. sc. iii-iv.] NOTES 141 

51. — rooky. Either inhabited by rooks; or, more probably, 
misty, foggy, darkish. 

53. — night's black agents. Not only the creatures of prey, 
but also the ministers of evil; cf. I, iii, 15. 

55. — Things bad begun. This is the clear enunciation of the 
principle of evil that Macbeth will strive in vain to maintain. 

56. — prithee. I pray thee. 

Scene III 

Scene m. This scene presents the climax of the subaction 
of Banquo and Macbeth. 

It is based on a passage in Holinshed; see § § 10, 11. 

Setting. Various suggestions have been made for the setting 
of the scene: — ^^ A Park, the Castle at a Distance" (Rowe), '^ A 
Park, Gate leading to the Palace'' (Capell), "A Park or Lawn, 
with a gate leading to the Palace" (Malone). 

2. — He needs, etc. That is, " We need not mistrust him." 

It has been suggested that the third murderer is Macbeth 
himself. But Macbeth in III, iv is receiving news from the 
murderers, not feigning; the third murderer knows his business 
of spy (11. 12-14); dramatic action, too, must be clear and im- 
mediately effective; which renders the* suggested interpretation 
highly improbable. 

5. — The west yet glimmers. The dialogue here indicates the 
setting of the scene in the appropriate landscape; this method 
characterizes Shakespeare's dramatic art. 

6.— lated.— Belated. 

9. — a light. The horsemen are leaving the road for a foot- 
path, for which a torch at nightfall is needful. 

10. — note of expectation. List of expected guests. 

11. — horses go about. A touch to account for Banquo 's 
entrance on foot; we should otherwise expect him on 
horseback. 

18. — slaveo Miscreant. 

19. — way. The plan agreed on. 

Scene IV 

Scene IV. The climax of the play — the coronation banquet 
of Macbeth, but the counteraction operating through the sub- 
action of Banquo (here at its catastrophe) appears against him 



142 MACBETH [act m. sc. iv. 

in supernatural form. The oracle he has tried to frustrate he 
has helped to realize through his very opposition. 

The scene owes all to Shakespeare's imagination. 

1. — degrees. Relative ranks by which place at table, in rela- 
tive nearness to royalty, would be determined. 

— at first and last. ''To first and last . . . all, of whatever 
degree" (Johnson). It may be, however, "'My first and last 
word is 'Welcome.'" 

3. — ourself. Regal use — the "plural of majesty." 

5. — keeps her state. Keeps in her higher position, while Mac- 
beth steps down from the royal dais. " The state was a raised 
platform, on which was placed a chair with a canopy over it." 
(Giffoi-d.) 

6. — require. Ask for. 

10. — sides are even. The arrangement of guests being com- 
plete in due proportion, Macbeth shows where he intends to sit 
— among the guests, not in his chair of state. 

11. — large. Unstinted, unrestricted. 

— anon. At once. The preparation for the " cup all round " 
allows Macbeth a few minutes for the murderer, whom he now 
sees at the door. 

— we'll drink a measure. While the loving cup goes round 
Macbeth has the opportunity to talk with the murderers. 

14. — thee without. His blood on thee, hideous sight as it is, 
is better than Banquo safe among the guests. Clark-Wright 
would construe "him within " as " inside him," i. e., than the 
blood in Banquo as guest here. 

19. — nonpareil. A person without equal. 

21. — fit. A position of hardship, danger, or intense excite- 
ment; "my fit," my state of difficulty and anguish. 

—perfect. See I, v, 22, 23. 

23. — casing air. Air which encloses the earth. 

24. — cabined, cribbed, confined. One of the famous illus- 
trations of three-fold iteration; . Scott and Byron furnish 
others. 

25. — saucy. Insolent. 

27. — trenched. Deep-cut. 

28. — the least a death to nature. The least enough to termi- 
nate one's natural life. * 

29. — worm. In El. E. a frequent word for anything in snake 
form; the old sense of the word was snake or dragon. 

33. — the cheer. The words of hospitality. 



ACT III. sc. IV.] NOTES • 143 

— the feast is sold. The feast becomes no more than en- 
tertainment which one pays for. 

34. — a-making. In the act of making. (Abbott, § 24.) 

36. — ceremony. Stately formality. 

37. — sweet remembrancer. Macbeth glosses over his absence 
from the feast by this compliment to Lady Macbeth, who recalls 
him to his duty as host. 

39a. — The ghost of Banquo. Vain discussion has arisen on 
the point whether (i) an actor plays the part or it is left to Mac- 
beth^s imagination; (ii) the ghost of Banquo appears twice, or 
Duncan's first, then Banquo's. The sense will appear by noting 
the large construction of the play— at this point the first sub- 
action centring only in Banquo works itself definitely into the 
fabric of the main action. 

— in Macbeth' s place. That is, his indicated seat among the 
guests, which he has not yet taken. 

40. — country's honor. All the Scottish nobility. 

41. — graced. Full of grace, gracious; the participial -edj here 
as frequently elsewhere, means "possessed of," "made of," 
"characterized by." 

42.— who. See III, i, 123, n. 

50. — Thou canst not say, etc. Shakespeare presents here, by 
his wonderful dramatic vision, a crisis of intense power and 
pregnant meaning. We are at the climax; here the tragic force 
enters; the play begins to turn toward the catastrophe. 

55. — upon a thought. As quick as thought. 

57. — shall. Are sure to; "shall" was used in El. E. in all 
three persons to denote inevitable futurity without reference to 
will (desire). (Abbott, § 315.) 

— extend his passion. Prolong his agitation. 

59. — that dare look. The note of personal, physical courage; 
cf. I, vii, 46 /. 

60. — proper stuff! Fine stuff and nonsense! 

61. — very painting, etc. The mere picture drawn by your 
fear. 

62.— air-drawn dagger. Cf. II, i, 33 ^. 

— you said. A scene is suggested, but the detail does not 
need to be rendered in the action. 

63. — flaws. Bursts of feeling or passion. 

64. — Impostors to. Mere deceivers compared to. 

66.— authorized. (Pron. authorized) (Abbott, §491.) Told 
on the authority. 



144 MACBETH [act m. sc. iv. 

— grandam. Dam=dame, lady, mother. 

— Shame itself! You are the very image of shame and disap- 
pointment. If " shame ^' is the imperative of the reflexive verb, 
then '' it '' is used here, as frequently in Shakespeare, contemptu- 
ously of persons. 

71. — charnel-houses. Burial places, vaults for the unnamed 
dead; obsolete in this general sense. In Stratford churchyard 
the charnel-house was the receptacle for the bones of those 
whose tenure of their grave had expired. 

73. — maws of kites. If bodies are to return from their graves, 
their only monuments will be the stomachs of the birds that feed 
on offal and dead bodies. 

76. — Ere human statute. Laws concerning human life, 
i. e., against murder. The differentiation of human and humane 
in spelling is modern. 

— gentle weal. The commonwealth or nation cleansed of 
murder and thus refined. 

81. — twenty mortal murders. Cf. 1. 27. 

93. — Avaunt. Begone. 

94. — marrowless. Referring (Liddell) to marrow as the seat 
of nervous force. 

95. — speculation. Either power of sight or act of seeing. 

100. — Approach thou hke. Macbeth speaks of the ghost as 
a spirit of evil, able therefore to take any shape it wishes. (Scot 
treats of this power of transformation, xvi, xxviii.) 

—rugged. Shaggy. 

101. — armed rhinoceros. The rhinoceros with his horn. 

— Hyrcan tiger. ^'Hyrcania that land hath in the east side 
the sea Caspius, in the south Armenia, in the north Albania, and 
in the west Iberia. ... In that land beeth divers wild beasts 
and fowls, tigers that beast, and panthers also.'' — Ralph Higden, 
Polychronicon, trans. Trevisa. This established Hyrcania in 
English literary allusion as the proper place for tigers. The 
idea is based on PHny, VIII, xviii. 

102. — my firm nerves. The lines 99-107 develop the "note" 
of his character; cf. I, iii, 137 /. 

104. — the desert. As a place where they could fight without 
interference; elsewhere Shakespeare puts such a place more 
definitely — Africa, Arabia. 

105. — inhabit. Dwell, hence delay, — perhaps, even, come 
not forth to fight. 

— protest. Testify publicly. 



ACT III. sc. IV.] NOTES 145 

106.— baby. El. E. for doll. 

107. — mockery. As assuming Banquo's form. 

110. — admired. Strange, wonderful. 

111. — overcome. Pass over. 

112. — make me strange. Make me a stranger to myself, I 
scarcely know myself. 

113. I owe. Is mine; cf. I, iii, 76, n. 

119. — the order. Precedence according to rank; cf. 1. 1. 

122. — blood will have blood. ^^ Such is the horror of murder, 
and the crying sin of blood, that it will never be satisfied but 
with blood.'' — Arraignment and Trial of Witches at Lancaster , 
1612-13. 

123. — Stones have been known to move. This has been 
taken as an allusion to the "rocking stones" of the Druids, 
which were regarded as oracular (Paton). It is more probably 
an allusion to such legends as that of the statue of Mitys at 
Argos that fell down and crushed the murderer of the man 
it represented. See Aristotle, Poetics, vii. For stone in the 
sense of statue, see Shakespeare's Sonnets, lv. 

— trees to speak. Vergil gives the legend of how ^Eneas 
coming to Thrace pulls at a tree, draws blood, and finally hears 
the story of Polydorus, who had been murdered there {Mneidy 
III, 22). It is interesting to find that Scot, whom Shake- 
speare read diligently for the witchcraft of this play, remarks: 
"Trees spake, as before the death of Caesar," p. 167. 

124. — Augurs. Roman religious officials whose duty was to 
forecast the future by certain signs — flight of birds, entrails, 
etc; hence a diviner or soothsayer; some think we should inter- 
pret as "auguries." 

— understood relations. The secret principles governing the 
operations of nature of which the diviner gets a clue. This is 
Cicero's belief as expressed in his book on Divination. 

125. — maggot-pies. Magpies. 

— choughs. Birds of the crow family, formerly applied es- 
pecially to the common jackdaw. 

— rooks. Members of the crow family, very common in 
Europe. 

The most striking classical legend concerning the revelation of 
the murderer by birds concerns the poet Ibycus; cranes brought 
about the discovery of his murderers (see Schiller's Cranes of 
Ibycus). 

126.— What is the night? What is the time of night? 



146 MACBETH [act hi. sc. v. 

128. — denies his person. Refuses to attend in person. 

The second subaction centring in Macduff here takes its rise. 

The suggestion of this detail is from Hohnshed, who tells 
how Macduff did not attend in person to the building of his 
share of Macbeth's castle at Dunsinnan. 

131. — a one. Any one (Abbott, § 81); still in colloquial use. 

142. — self-abuse. Self-deception; Macbeth accepts the sug- 
gestion that he is the victim of his own senses. 

143. — initiate fear. The fear at the beginning of an enter- 
prise; c/. "It is the first step that costs." 

Scene V 

Scene V. We are here still more definitely in the falling 
action. It parallels the rising action in offering a Witches' 
prelude followed later by the second meeting of Macbeth and 
the Witches, resulting in a new triad of oracular speeches to 
be fulfilled in the catastrophe. The authenticity of the scene 
is discussed in the Introduction. 

The scene is suggested by Holinshed, § 14. 

1. — Hecate. See II, i, 52, n. 

— angerly. With anger; since the seventeenth century 
"angerly" has been replaced by "angrily." 

2. — beldame. Here a loathsome, hateful old woman; a hag. 
Not a direct adoption of Fr. belle dame, but formed upon darriy 
earlier dame, in its English sense of mother (c/. Ill, iv, 66, n, and 
IV, iii, 218, n) with 6e? used to express relationship. (N.E.D.) 

3. — saucy. Presuming, overbearing; obsolete in this meaning. 

7. — close. Intimate, therefore secret, mysterious. 

11. — wayward. Perverse, froward. 

13. — Loves for his own ends, not for you. That is, Macbeth 
has no personal love of the witches, nor is he in love with evil; 
he uses witchcraft merely to further his own ambitious aims. 

In Hecate's speech the attitude of the powers of evil as hostile 
to Macbeth now first grows clear; this is the note of preparation 
for the irony of their treatment of him in IV, i. 

The scene is Shakespeare's development of the suggestion in 
Holinshed, § 13. 

15. — pit of Acheron. The river Acheron, in Thesprotia, in 
Epirus, was in a country considered by the earliest Greeks as 
the end of the world in the west, and therefore they believed 
the river itself to be the entrance to the lower world. Later 



ACT III. sc. v.] NOTES 147 

the name was given to one of the rivers of the lower world, and 
the name was often used to signify Hades itself. The associa- 
tion with Hecate and the Witches is explained in II, i, 52, n. 
The 'association with Acheron is a relic of the classical origin 
of Hecate. It is quite clear that the "helFs-hole'^ at which 
they meet is not far from Forres, but local identification is not 
forthcoming. 

18. — vessels . . . spells. See IV, i. 

20. — I am for the air. See I, i, 10, n. 

21. — dismal. Fateful, disastrous. See I, ii, 53, n. 

23. — corner. The usual El. E. term for the horn of the moon. 

24. — vaporous drop. "This vaporous drop seems to have 
been meant for the same as the virus lunare of the ancients, 
being the foam which the moon was supposed to shed on par- 
ticular herbs, or other objects when strongly solicited by en- 
chantment. Lucan introduces Erectho using it — ^et virus 
large lunare ministrat.' — Pharsalia, Bk. vi, 666." (Steevens.) 

— profound. Pregnant with hidden powers, of vast poten- 
tialities. 

26. — magic sleights. Feats of magic. 

27. — sprites. Variant form of spirits; see II, iii, 70, n. 

28, 29. — illusion . . . confusion. Here there is a close fol- 
lowing of Shakespeare's second source of the Macbeth story: — 
"But their false illusions of the devil brought him to utter con- 
fusion, and gart (made) him rage in ithand (such) slaughter of . 
his subjects, but (without) any fear of his life." (Hector 
Boece, tr. Bellenden.) 

— confusion. Destruction; see II, iii, 71. 

31. — grace. Righteousness, or (Liddell) favor. 

32. — security. Human nature has always felt that the mo- 
ment of fancied security or perfect happiness was the moment 
of greatest danger; cf. the ring of Poly crates. 

34. ^little spirit. Cf. I, i, 8, n. Ben Jonson explains this 
reference in a note to his Masque of Queens: "Their little martin 
is he that calls them to their conventicles, which is done in a 
human voice . . . their little martins or martinets (martlet), 
of whom I have mentioned before, use this form in dismissing 
their conventions, Eja facessite propere hinc omnes, i. e., ^ Come 
away, come away,' etc." (Liddell.) 

35a. — Come away. Shakespeare had apparently no song 
here. Before 1623, however, when Macbeth was first printed, 
the play had drawn to itself in stage production two songs from 



148 MACBETH [act m. sc. vi. 

Middleton's play of The Witch (1613) — one here and one 
after IV, i, 43. The present song may be read in the 
text of The Witch, Appendix to Furness's ed. of Macbeth, 
p. 401; the later song is given, p. 404. • 

Scene VI 

Scene VI. This scene represents the developing counter- 
action, the falling away of the Scottish nobles from Macbeth. 
Macbeth's second murder repeating the situation of the first, by 
its very similarity has drawn attention to Macbeth as a possible 
murderer. The commentary of Lennox with which it opens 
summarizes the situation as viewed by the people. Dramatic 
color is given it by the irony of the speaker. Shakespeare used 
the same art in Casca's story of the offering of the crown to 
Caesar, Julius Ccesar, ii, 233-286. 

The second subaction centring in Macduff is here developed 
from III, iv, 128. Note its first suggestion in II, iii, 95, 

It is a development of the Holinshed narrative, § § 12, 13. 

2. — only I say. Emphatically for ''this alone I say." 

3. — things have been strangely borne. There have been 
strange doings; c/. ''carryings-on." For "borne" in the sense 
of "manage," "conduct," see 1. 17. 

4. — of. In the sense of "by" with verbs of feeling. 

— Marry. Here an exclamation of asseveration. Originally 
the name of the Virgin Mary used as an oath. 

— he was dead. The irony lies in the suggestion that Mac- 
beth's pity for Duncan was not befo're, but after, the murder. 

8. — who cannot. A sense construction; "no one wants the 
thought," etc., overcomes the logical construction, "who can 
want." 

— want. Lack. 

10.— fact. (Evil) deed. 

12. — delinquents. A word of worse significance in El. E. than 
now. 

Compare Lennoxes part in II, iii, 97 ff. 

13. — thrall. Serf, bondman. 

17. — borne. See 1. 3, n. 

19. — an 't. "An" is a short form of "and" with the sense, 
in Norse usage, of "if"; "an" is rare before 1600, when it ap- 
pears occasionally in the dramatists, especially before "it.' 
(N. E. D.) 



ACT III. sc. VI.] NOTES 149 

— they should find. "Should" used to express contingent 
futurity; modern usage " would. '^ (Abbott, § 322.) 

21. — broad words. Plain speaking. 

— 'cause. Colloquial usage preserves this old contraction 
of "because." 

— failed His presence. Did not appear in person. 

22. — tyrant. Usurper. 

23. — Macduff lives in disgrace. Cf. Ill, iv, 128, n. 

25.— holds. Withholds. 

— due of birth. Rights to succession as the eldest son. 

27.— Of. By. 

— pious Edward. Edward (1004-1066), surnamed the Con- 
fessor for his ascetic virtues, was King of England from 1042 
until his death. 

29. — his high respect. The high respect in which he was 
held. 

30. — Holy King. A paraphrase of his title Edward the 
Confessor; cf. 1. 27, n. 

31. — Northumberland. The powerful Border earldom, for- 
merly a kingdom north from the Humber; in Macbeth's time it 
stretched from the Tyne to the Tweed. 

— Siward. See Dramatis Personae, n. 

35. — Free . . . bloody knives. Such as killed Banquo, but 
suggesting Macbeth's developed lust of blood as foretold in III, 
iv, 136 ff. 

36. — free honors. Such as may come to free men. 

38. — exasperate. Verbs ending in -ate frequently had a p. 
part, without -ed; the form -ate agreed with the Latin p. part. 
-atus and the final t sound satisfied the English ear for a p. part, 
ending. In legal phraseology ^'situate" still preserves the old 
usage. 

40. — and with an absolute "Sir, not I!" etc. And at an un- 
compromising "Sir, not V which he got in answer, the sullen 
messenger, etc. 

41. — cloudy. Dark with passion. 

— turns me. The so-called ethical dative, representing the 
interest of the speaker in the story. 

42. — hums. Makes an inarticulate murmur in a pause of 
speaking, from hesitation or embarrassment. Usually in the 
phrase "hum and haw.'' 

— who should say. The absolute use of "who"="any one" 
(Abbott, § 257) ; the sense is — " as much as to say." 



150 MACBETH [act m. sc. vi. 

43. — clogs. Makes me bear. The answer is a burden to 
him because of the reception he is Hkely to get from Macbeth. 

47. — his message ere he come. May an angel take before him 
the news of the country's sad estate, and expedite her release. 

48, 49. — suffering country Under a hand accursed. This un- 
usual construction occurs also in II, iii, 138 and III, ii, 27; it is 
a part of the highly-wrought style that marks this play. 



Act Fourth 

The Fourth Act presents the development of the situation 
set forth in the climax in the Third Act. Both sides of the action 
seek solutions for the situation — Macbeth through the Witches 
and new murders, while Scotland itself, represented in Mac- 
duff, turns to Malcolm and England for its salvation. 

Scene I 

Scene I. Here Shakespeare could venture on a fully developed 
scene of witchcraft. He had touched the supernatural in I, i, 
and again more definitely and at greater length in I, iii; mean- 
while he had suffused the action through the morbid imagination 
of Macbeth with night and terror; now the mysteries of Hecate 
can be given and gain poetic credence. Pity that every truly 
tragic figure calls for must be evoked; so far pity can hardly be 
given to Macbeth; but such pity as we do give him comes chiefly 
from a vague feeling that Macbeth, for all his conscious purposes 
in evil, is the sport and mock of malign powers. 

It should be remembered that the audience for whom this 
play was written belonged to the period when the terror of 
witchcraft was at its height; when most people looked on witch- 
craft as a fearful thing, a monstrous perversion to be rooted out 
by torture and death. 

The details of witchcraft worked into the scene Shakespeare 
got mainly from Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft; Pitcairn, News 
from Scotland; King James's Demonology, and references to 
witchcraft in the classics; but the air, too, was full of talk of 
witches and their prosecution. See Introduction. Macbeth's 
intercourse with the Witches and the new prophecies are sug- 
gested by Holinshed, § 14. 

1. — brinded. An earlier form of brindled, both variants of 
branded, burnt, of a burnt color. (N. E. D.) 

The cat, hedgehog, harpy are transformed devils, familiar 
spirits of the Witches; see I, i, 8, n. 

151 



152 MACBETH [act iv. sc. i. 

2. — hedge-pig. A variant form of hedgehog; a favorite 
shape in fairy transformations also. 

3. — Harpier. Spelled also harper, apparently a variant 
spelling of harpy. The classical harpy (L. harpyia) was a fabu- 
lous monster, rapacious and filthy, having a woman^s face and 
body and a bird's wings and claws. (J^neid, III, 212 ff.). It 
was a well-known figure in masques (see The Tempest). The 
name could naturally pass to an inferior devil of the incubus 
order. 

The familiar of the third witch is anonymous in I, i, 8. 

— 'Tis time. The auspicious moment has come. 

4. — Round about the caldron go. The brews made by the 
witches were chiefly in the form of ointments for invisibility, 
for riding through the air, for change of form. 

5. — poisoned. Poisonous. 

6. — toad. The toad is still popularly supposed to be poison- 
ous to the touch. ^'Of sweet and wholesome herbs the filthy 
toads and other venomous beasts do make their poison, con- 
verting them into a nature like themselves." — Scot (Appendix 
of 1665). 

"She (Agnes Thomson) confessed that she took a black 
toad, and did hang the same up by the heels three days, and col- 
lected and gathered the venom as it dropped and fell from it in 
an oyster shell." — Pitcairn, News from Scotland, p. 218. * 

— under cold stone. The torpidity of the toad in winter 
seems to be referred to. 

8. — Sweltered. Swelter is a frequentative form of M. E. 
swelten, to swoon, faint, or die, to be oppressed with heat, 
hence to sweat, perspire freely. 

10. — Double, double, etc. This is the refrain — a general in- 
vocation that evil may come; in this refrain we have the echo of 
the Litany — but here it is the Litany of lost souls. 

12. — Fillet. A lobe of the liver, also a thin slice of lean meat. 

— fenny. Dwelling in a fen. 

14. — Eye of newt. A newt is a small hzard. 

Witchcraft favored organs and members for ingredients. 
Scot mentions "the brain of a cat, of a newt, or of a lizard" 
(V, viii), "the blood of a flittermouse" (X, viii). 

15. — wool of bat. The bat, a creature of night, is used as an 
omen of evil. 

16. — Adder's fork. The forked tongue of the adder, popu- 
larly supposed to be the sting. 



ACT IV. sc. I.] NOTES 153 

— blind-worm. A reptile with very small eyes, supposed to 
be eyeless; also called the slow-worm; but the name was also 
formerly applied to the adder. (N. E. D.) 

17. — Lizard's leg. See 1. 14, n. 

— howlet's wing. The wings and feathers of the screech-owl 
were ingredients in Medaea's magic broth (Ovid, Metamor- 
phoses) j and were used also by the witch Canidia (Horace) in her 
incantations. ^^ Canidia, her locks entwined with short snakes, 
bids burn in magic flames wild fig-trees torn from graves, and 
cypresses, funereal trees, and eggs smeared with blood of 
hideous toad, and feathers of screech-owl, bird of night, and 
herbs lolcos sends, and Iberia fruitful in drugs, and bones 
snatched from the teeth of starving bitch.'' — Horace, Epode V 
(tr. Lonsdale and Lee). 

19.— hell-broth. Cf. "hell-kite," IV, iii, 217. 

22. — Scale of dragon. The ingredients here become less 
familiar and more formidable. The mythical dragon still lived 
in well-known legends. 

— tooth of wolf. See 1. 65, n. 

23. — Witches' mummy. Mummy (Arab, mum, embalmer's 
wax) is the embalmed body of man or sacred beast (Egyptian) ; 
it was by physicians and others once used powdered as a 
medicine; cf. "Mummy is become merchandise, Mizraim cures 
wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams" (Sir Thomas 
Browne, Urn- Burial). 

— maw. Stomach. 

—gulf. Throat. 

24. — ravined. Ravenous. 

25. — root of hemlock. "Dioscorides writeth, saying, Hem- 
lock is a very evil, dangerous, hurtful, and poisonous herb, in- 
somuch that whosoever taketh of it into his body dieth reme- 
diless." — Gerarde's Herbal. 

— digged i' the dark. Cf. Merchant of Venice, V, i, 4 /. 

26. — blaspheming Jew. In popular Elizabethan speech the 
Jew was "infidel" (see Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 334); it was 
only a step further to call him "blaspheming." 

27. — yew. The yew from time immemorial has been associ- 
ated with the dead. "The yew-tree, as Galen reporteth, is of a 
venomous quality, and against man's nature. Dioscorides 
writeth, and generally all that heretofore have dealt in the 
faculty of herbarism, that the yew is very venomous to be taken 
inwardly, and that if any do sleep under the shadow thereof, it 



154 MACBETH [act iv. sc. i. 

causeth sickness, and oftentimes death." — Gerarde's Herbal^ 
1577. (The author scoffs at this as superstitious.) Compare 
the making of the fiery cross in Scott's Lady of the Lake. 

28. — eclipse. A time of ill omen. 

29. — Turk and Tartar. This is a frequent Elizabethan 
combination; cf. Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 32. In the 
account of the voyage of Banister and Ducket into Persia, 
1574, we hear of a great "army of . . . Turks and Tartars. '' 
And again in Arthur Jenkinson's narrative, "they have had 
and have with the Turks and Tartars mortal wars'' (Hakluyt, 
1589). 

30. — Finger of . . . babe. If strangled at birth then un- 
christened, and so peculiarly liable to be the prey of and of use 
to the powers of evil. " If there be any children unbaptized, 
or not guarded with the sign of the cross, or orisons; then 
the witches may and do catch them from their mothers' 
sides in the night, or out of their cradles, or otherwise 
kill them with ceremonies; and after burial steal them 
out of their graves and seethe them in a cauldron, until 
their flesh be made potable. Of the thickest whereof they 
make ointments, whereby they ride in the air; but the 
thinner portion they put into flagons, whereof whosoever 
drinketh, observing certain ceremonies, immediately be- 
cometh a master or rather a mistress in that practice or 
faculty."— Scot, p. 32. 

31. — Ditch -delivered. Born in a ditch. 

— drab. Harlot. 

32.— slab. Slimy. 

33. — chaudron. Variant of "chawdron" {cf. chowder), en- 
trails of a beast, especially as used for food. 

37. — ^baboon. In El. E. pron. hab'oon. 

38a. — Enter Hecate. The Folio reads after this — "and the 
other three Witches." It is a question whether this is a mis- 
take or an intentional adding of three more witches for the sake 
of the dance later. 

42. — elves and fairies in a ring. Fairy rings are the little 
circles of brighter green grass found in old pastures around 
which it was supposed the fairies danced by night; cf. The 
Tempesty V, i, 37. 

— elves. The generic term in German mythology for the 
fabled dwellers of woods, caves, and waters. The fairy is a 
variety of elf, possessed of magic power. 



ACT IV. sc. i] NOTES 155 

43a. — "Black spirits," etc. This song is added from Mid- 
dleton's Witch; see III, vi, 33a, n. 

— Black. Witches of the black or evil art. 

44. — pricking of my thumbs. '^ It is a very ancient supersti- 
tion that all sudden pains of the body, which could not natu- 
rally be accounted for, were presages of somewhat that was 
shortly to happen.'' (Steevens.) 

46. — Open, locks. Opening of locks by witchcraft is a 
common attribute of witches. It is mentioned in the trial 
of John Feane, alias Coninghame, News from Scotland, pp. 
211/. 

"The herbs called ^thiopides will open all locks . . . with 
the help of certain words.'' — Scot, p. 199. 

48. — secret. Occult (Liddell), plotting. 

50. — conjure. Shakespeare here and usually accents con' jure, 
even in the sense of adjure, entreat. 

54. — yesty. Obsolete variant of yeasty, foaming like yeast. 

5b. — bladed. Enclosed in the blade, not yet in full ear. 
(N. E. D.) 

— lodged. Beaten down by storm. 

57. — pyramids. In El. E. used for towers, pinnacles, steeples. 

59. — germins. Variant of germen, a germ. 

60. — till destruction sicken. /. e., of its work and nature; for 
the climacteric touch, cf. ''And death itself lies dead," Swin- 
burne, A Forsaken Garden. 

63. — our masters. Their attendant spirits. 

64. — Pour in. Spirits of different orders were summoned by 
ingredients of different character and power. Scot gives the 
receipts. 

65. — farrow. "A litter of pigs; occasionally in singular 
(after Shakespeare) with numeral to indicate the number of 
young." (N. E. D.) Steevens pointed out that the laws of 
Kenneth read in Hohnshed: "If a sow eat her pigs let her be 
stoned to death and buried." 

— sweaten. Archaic past participle. (Abbott, § 344.) 

— grease . . . gibbet. The magic preparations of Circe 
are an interesting parallel: — "She gathered together all 
her substance for fumigations. . . . She made ready the 
members of dead men, as their nostrils and fingers, she 
cut^ the lumps of flesh of such as were hanged, the blood 
which she had reserved of such as were slain, and the 
jaw-bones and teeth of wild beasts, then she said certain 



156 MACBETH [act iv. sc. i. 

charms over the hair, and dipped it in divers waters, as 
in well water, cow milk, mountain honey and other liq- 
uor/^ — {Golden Ass, Bk. Ill, Lucius Apuleius, tr. Wm. Adling- 
ton, 1596.) 

67. — high or low. Great spirits or lesser spirits (Liddell); 
more probably the idea is of direction from the air or the earth 
— a note of preparation for the rising of the apparition from the 
trap. 

68a. — Armed Head. A head in armor; — fate will approach 
Macbeth in battle. The head does not represent either 
Macduff (Liddell) or Macbeth; it is a symbol. Each appa- 
rition will be capable of different interpretations like its 
response; in that way the apparitions like their sayings are 
Delphic. 

74. — harped. Given voice to, guessed. (N. E. D.) This sense 
arises from the harp-accompaniment of the words of the old 
folk ballad. 

76a. — a bloody child. Symbolic of any child of woman born, 
but particularly of Macduff. 

78. — three ears. In allusion to the threefold address. 

84. — bond of fate. That is, hold fate to its obligation; c/., 
for the antithesis of idea. Bacon's phrase, ^'Give hostages to 
fortune." 

85. — pale-hearted. Cf. II, iii, 65, n. 

86a. — a child crowned, etc. This Macbeth cannot explain; the 
symbol grows clear later in Malcolm's stratagem and the res- 
toration of his line to sovereignty. 

88.— round. See I, v, 29, n. 

93. — Birnam Wood. Birnam Hill south of Dunkeld was 
once covered by the royal forest. 

— Dunsinane Hill. One of the Sidlaws, in Perthshire. It is 
about a thousand feet above the sea and is crowned with 
vestiges of a strong ancient fort. — Groome, Survey of Scotland. 
Shakespeare's pronunciation (older usage) is here dun sin' an, 
but elsewhere (V, ii, 12; iii, 2, 60, 61; iv, 9, etc.) dun sin ane'. 
The latter is the present pronunciation. 

This sort of prophecy based on an apparent physical im- 
possibility is much favored in old story. 

95. — impress. Press into service. 

96. — bodements. Omens, auguries. 

97. — Rebellion's head. RebeUion will never "make head/' 
i. e., gather together armed forces. 



ACT IV. sc. I.] NOTES 157 

99.— lease of nature. Cj. ''nature's copy/' III, ii, 38. Shall 
live the full lease of life that nature gives to man. 

106. — Why sinks that caldron? The stage machinery is 
working through a trap. 

— noise. Used in El. E. of sound harmonious or otherwise. 

Ilia. — A show. A dumb show. 

— eight Kings. Symbolic of the Scottish kings descended 
from Walter Steward (a descendant of Banquo who married 
Margaret Bruce) — Robert II, Robert III, James I, James II, 
James III, James IV, James V, James VI (James I of England). 

— a glass. A magic mirror, a crystal used in magic to show 
persons dead or distant or future events. See Chaucer's 
Squire's Tale. 

112. — Thou. The first of the show of kings, who appear in 
succession. Macbeth has to interpret their resemblance to 
Banquo. 

116. — start. That is, from the socket and see no more. 

117. — crack of doom. Crack was formerly applied to the 
roar of a cannon, of a trumpet, or of thunder; cf. I, ii, 37, n.; 
hence "the thunder peal of the day of judgment, or perhaps the 
blast of the archangel's trump." (N. E. D.) 

121. — two-fold balls and treble sceptres. Allusion to the 
United Kingdom of England and Scotland (James was crowned 
at Scone and Westminster) and the three-fold kingship of Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland, or, as some say, Great Britain, 
Ireland, Wales. 

122. — Now. The final appearance of Banquo at last inter- 
prets the whole "show." 

123. — blood-boltered. Clotted with blood, i. e., his hair 
matted by the blood from the wounds. (Bolter, collect, clog, 
cake, — "The snow boltered i' his hoof," — Warwickshire dial., 
Wright.) 

126. — Amazedly. With a stronger sense than in Mod. E. 

127. — sprites. Spirits; see II, iii, 84, n. 

130. — antic. Grotesque, bizarre. 

132. — did . . . pay. Gave (him a welcome). 

138. — air whereon they ride. See I, i, 10, n. 

139. — damned all those that trust. Dramatic irony and tragic 
anticipation. 

140. — Horse. Horses. The plural was in OE. the same as the 
singular; the plural " horse " Was general down to the end of the 
seventeisnth century! (N. E. D.) 



158 MACBETH [act iv. sc. ii> 

145 f . — flighty purpose, etc. This combines the notion of 
opportunity, which is soon gone, and purpose; in proverbial 
phrase, strike while the iron is hot; cf. 1. 154. 

147. — firstlings. The first product or result of anything. 

153. — trace. Follow (in the steps of). 

155. — no more sights! That is, now for action I 

Scene II 

Scene n. This scene develops the falling action on Macbeth 's 
side — his life is desperation. 

Shakespeare here uses suggestions from Holinshed, § 15. 

Setting. Macduff's Castle. "At Culross, shire of Perth, 
stood Dunne-marle Castle, an ancient fortress of the Macduffs, 
Thanes of Fife, where it is said the cruel murder of Lady 
Macduff and her little ones, so pathetically noticed by Shake- 
speare, took place by order of Macbeth." (Gorton, Topographi- 
cal Dictionary.) 

7. — titles. Usually explained as title deeds, possessions. It 
suggests also his feudal titles which would be forfeited by 
treason. 

9. — natural touch. Touch of nature. 

— poor wren. "There are three statements here which are 
likely to be criticised by the ornithologist. First, that the wren 
is the smallest of birds, which is evidently an oversight. Sec- 
ondly, that the wren has sufficient courage to fight against a bird 
of prey in defence of its young, which is doubtful. Thirdly, 
that the owl will take young birds from the nest.'' — Harting, 
Ornithology of Shakespeare. 

14. — coz. "An abbreviation of cousin used in formal or fa- 
miliar address both to relatives and in the wider sense.'' 
(N. E. D.) 

17. — fits o' the season. What fits the season. Other inter- 
pretations of this are: — "The violent disorders of the season, its 
convulsions; as in Coriolanus^ III, ii, 33" (Steevens). "The 
critical conjunctures of the time. The figure is taken from the 
fits of an intermittent fever" (Clark- Wright). See III, vi, 
44/. 

19. — hold rumor. Take our information of what happens — 
i. e.y our fears are fathers to the news we hear. 

22. — move. "Move" has been interpreted both as verb and 
as noun. The former is preferable, for " move " as verb adds 



ACT IV. sc. II.] NOTES 159 

the necessary touch to "float each way'' to correct the possible 
stationary suggestion in "float." 

24. — climb upward. One of the many phrases in Shake- 
speare suggested by the wheel of Fortune. 

28. — so much a fool . . . should. His tears would come. 
"That" is omitted. (Abbott, § 282.) 

30.— Sirrah. See III, i, 44, n. 

34, 35. — net nor lime, pitfall nor gin. "The fowler . . . en- 
tangleth them (i. e., 'little birds') with lime twigs which he 
sets forth on a pole or perch, or snareth them in the nooses of 
a springe, a pitfall, or gins." — Comenius's Janua, cap. 39. 
(Liddell.) 

— lime. Bird-lime, a sticky paste, made out of holly bark, 
spread on the branches of trees to ensnare small birds. 

— Gin, a trap. (M. E. giUj short for M. E. engin, a con- 
trivance.) 

36. — poor birds they. The son accepts his mother's desig- 
nation of himself and argues his own safety — traps are not set for 
such as himself but for the rich and favored. 

48. — be. The OE. form supplanted by the Norse are. 

57. — liars and swearers ... to beat. Cf. Rosalind's reason 
why all lovers are not in dark houses. "The lunacy is so ordi- 
nary that all the whippers are in love too." — As You Like Ity 
III, ii, 423. 

— enow. See II, iii, 6, n. 

58. — monkey. It is interesting to find in El. E. this familiar 
use of "monkey" for "child." 

65. — state of honor . . . perfect. Fully informed as to your 
rank. 

67.— homely. Cf. "plain." 

70.— To do worse. This is the text of the Folios. '' Worse," 
according to Dr. Johnson, would be to let her and her children 
be destroyed without warning. Hanmer's conjectural rep^ding 
was " to do less." 

81.— where. Mod. E. would use '' that " after " so." 

— such as thou mayest. The proximity of a 2nd person 
"thou " seems to have caused the 2nd person form of the verb. 
(Abbott, § 412.) 

82. — shag-haired. Folio ^ reads " shag-ear'd," probably a mis- 
print for "shag-haired"; cf. 2. Henry VI, III, i, 367, "shag- 
haired crafty kern"; also Richard 11, II, i, 156, "rug-headed 
kerns." 



160 MACBETH [act iv. sc. hi. 

— egg. Applied contemptuously to a young person. 
(N. E. D.) 

83. — fry of treachery. Son of a traitor, with the idea of 
contempt suggested by the comparison with young fish 
just produced from the spawn. 

Scene III 

Scene HI. This scene develops the counteraction: — by en- 
hancing the importance of Malcolm and Macduff, by presenting 
the movement of the Scottish nobility in the person of Mac- 
duff in Malcolm's favor, by the gathering of forces of opposition 
in England. Malcolm's calumnies of his own pure life and 
character echo the "fair is foul'' motive; the motive of 
right and justice that inspires the counteraction is voiced in 
the assertion — *^ Though all things foul would wear the brows 
of grace, Yet grace must still look so." The scene is non- 
dramatic because there is little action throughout the very 
lengthy dialogue. 

All details are closely rendered from Holinshed, §§ 16, 
17, 18. 

1. — desolate shade. Appropriate for tears as the desert (III, 
iv, 104) for fighting. 

4. — bestride. The figure is from the soldier defending the 
body of a fallen comrade. 

— birthdom. Inheritance, birthright; — rare and obsolete. 
(N. E. D.) 

5. — howl. Wail, lament. The contemptuous sense is 
modern. 

— sorrows. Sounds of sorrow, lamentations. 

8. — syllable. "A single cry, the expression of grief of each 
new widow, and orphan, is in each case re-echoed by heaven." 
(Clark-Wright.) 

10. — time to friend. The construction ^'to have to friend, 
to wife," etc., is now archaic, except in ^Ho have to wife" 
(see the Bible and Prayer Book, ^'Marriage Service"); the 
idiom is still fully preserved in German, e. gf., zum Freunde 
haben. 

11. — spoke. See I, iv, 3, n. 

12. — sole. Mere. 

15. — deserve. Theobald's emendation. Folio ^ reads "dis- 
cern," which Liddell supports, interpreting ''You may per- 



ACT IV. sc. III.] NOTES 161 

ceive what sort of a man Macbeth is from my experience, and 
learn from me the wisdom of offering up," etc. 

— and wisdom. And (it would be) wisdom (indeed). (Ab- 
bott, § § 402, 403.) "There is certainly some corruption of the 
text here. . . . Perhapsa whole line has dropped out.'' (Clark- 
Wright.) 

20. — an imperial charge. A commission on royal affairs. 

21. — transpose. Change. 

22. — the brightest fell. " How art thou fallen from heaven, 
O Lucifer, son of the morning." — Isaiah, xiv, 12. 

23. — brows. The face above the eyes, especially as the seat 
of the facial expressions of joy, sorrow, shame, etc. (N. E. D.) 

— grace. In the older meaning of virtue. 

24. — grace must still look so. An echo of I, i, 9. 

25. — where I did find my doubts. Macduff has lost his hopes 
in coming to Malcolm; but the very coming to Malcolm, leaving 
his family defenceless, is the occasion of Malcolm's suspect- 
ing him. 

26. — rawness. Precipitate haste. Cf. "Raw Haste, half- 
sister to Delay," — Tennyson, Love Thou Thy Land, 

29. — jealousies. In El. E. suspicions; cf. "Be not jealous on 
me," Julius Ccesar, I, ii, 70. The plurals in the passage seem to 
imply detailed mental movements or acts. 

34.— title. See IV, ii, 7, n. 

— affeered. Setftled, confirmed. (OF. afeurer, Late L. affo- 
rare, to fix the price.) 

43. — England. For the King of England. 

49.— what. Whoever (Abbott, § 254.) 

51. — so grafted. Cf. the Prayer Book, "words . . . may 
through thy grace be so grafted inwardly in our hearts that 
they may bring forth in us the fruit of good Hving," — "Com- 
munion Service." 

55. — confineless. Boundless, unhmited; — "less" in the 
original sense of "without," used either with ncuns or verbs. 

57. — top. To outdo, surpass. 

58. — luxurious. Lascivious. 

59. — sudden. Hasty, rash, passionate, especially in quarrel. 

64. — continent. Restraining, restrictive; — obsolete in this 
its etymological sense. 

67. — is a tyranny. Turns the state of man, in which the 
faculties should be harmoniously balanced, into a lawless state 
where one passion usurps control. 



162 MACBETH [act iv. sc. hi. 

71. — convey. Manage with secrecy, privacy, craft; c/. LeaVy 
I, ii, 109. 

73. — hoodwink. Blindfold mentally. 

74. — That vulture. Such a vulture. 

80. — his jewels. Emphasize ^'his" as demonstrative, this 
man's. 

82. — that. So that; see I, ii, 58, n. 

83. — quarrels. Here in the El. sense of cause for dispute; 
see I, ii, 14. 

85. — sticks deeper. Theobald emended this to "strikes 
deeper." 

86.— summer-seeming. "Befitting, or looking like summer. 
Avarice is compared to a plant which strikes its roots deep and 
lasts through every season; lust to an annual which flourishes 
in the summer and then dies.'' (Clark-Wright.) 

88. — foisons. Abundant resources. (OFr. foison, harvest.) 

89. — portable. Endurable. 

90. — With . . . weighed. Balanced by. 

91. — king-becoming. An instance of the richness of the 
Elizabethans in word-coinage. 

92. — stableness. Mod. E. "stability," "constancy." 

93. — persev'erance. The ordinary El. E. accentuation. 
(Abbott, § 492.) 

95. — no relish. Not a dash, not a flavor; cf. Hamlet^ III, 
iii, 92. 

98. — milk of concord. See I, v, 18, n. 

99. — uproar. Throw into a tumult. The word has no con- 
nection with "roar," but is from the Dutch, op, up, roeren, to stir. 
(Skeat.) 

106. — since that. "That" simply strengthens the conjunc- 
tion "since." 

107. — interdiction. A legal decree prohibiting persons from 
the exercise of their legal rights because of mental or moral in- 
capacity; cf. interdict=excommunication. 

— accused. Incriminated. The later Folios read " accursed." 

108. — blaspheme. Slander. 

109. — Queen. There is no record of her religious character. 
The passage is especially applicable to Malcolm's wife, known as 
Saint Margaret. 

111. — Died every day. Expressing the life of renunciation; 
cf. St. Paul's "I die daily," 1. Corinthians, xv, 31. 

116. — black scruples. Suspicions of Macduff's treachery. 



ACT IV. sc. III.] NOTES 163 

118. — trains. Plots, devices. 

125.— For. As being. (Abbott, § 148.) 

133.— here-approach. Cf. 1. 148 and 1. 91, n, 

134. — Siward. See Dramatis Personse, n. 

135. — at a point. Fully prepared; cf. " appointed. '' 

136, 137. — chance . . . quarrel. May the chance of a good 
issue be proportioned to the righteousness of our cause. 

142. — malady. Scrofula or king's evil, a disease which was 
long popularly supposed to yield to the royal touch. Of this 
belief a contemporary account says — ^^ whilk (which) hath been 
always thought, and to this day is supposed to be a miraculous 
and a peculiar gift, and a special grace given to the kings and 
queens of England. Her Majesty (Elizabeth) only useth godly 
and divine prayer, with some alms, and referreth the cure to 
God and to the physician." King James touched for the evil 
as early as 1603. The royal gift of a gold coin (c/. 1. 153) was a 
valued part of the cure; in the reign of Elizabeth the coin known 
as an angel, from the figure of St. Michael on it, seems to have 
been used for this purpose {Chambers's Book of Days). The 
prayers used (cf. 1. 154) tended in time to crystallize into a set 
form. 

— convinces. Overcomes, conquers; cf. I, vii, 64. (The sense 
is etymological — L. con and vincere, to conquer.) 

143. — assay. Putting forth of one's strength or energy; best 
effort. (N. E. D.) 

145. — presently. At once. 

148.— here-remain. Cf. 1. 133. 

152. — mere. Unmixed with anything else, hence, utter. 

159. — speak him. Declare him. 

165.— know itself. Reahze itself; cf. II, iii, 72. 

169.— are made. Cf. " He made a groan,"— PencZes, IV, ii, 117. 

170. — modern. Common, every-day. 

— ecstasy. Fit of passion. 

171.— for who. Undeclined "who" for "whom." 

172. — flowers in their caps. Worn as badges of the family 
to which they belong. 

173. — or ere. Both words go back to a common source 
(OE. ar, ere, before). "Or," meaning "before," became obso- 
lete, and so was retained only in this compound emphatic ex- 
pression "or ere." Later on "ere" was confused with "e'er," 
and the phrase "or ever" arose. 

174. — nice. Accurate, precise. 



164 MACBETH [act iv. sc. m. 

175. — That of an hour's age, etc. That is, news of an hour 
ago is old and brings the man who tells it into derision. 

176. — teems. Brings forth. (OE. teman, to produce.) 

179. — at peace. The euphemism recalls ^' Is it well with the 
child? ... It is well/^ — 2. Kings, iv, 26; also Richard II, 
III, ii, 127. 

183. — were out. Were under arms, had taken the field. 

184. — witnessed. Proved. 

185. — for that. "Thaf merely adds to the conjunctional 
force. (Abbott, § 287.) 

— power. Forces. 

186. — time of help. Now is the moment when your help is 
called for. 

191. — better soldier none. (There is) none. (Abbott, § 403.) 

194. — would be. Need to be. 

195. — latch. Catch. (ME. laccheUy to catch; OE. Iceccan, to 
seize.) 

196. — fee-grief. Personal sorrow. "Fee'^ is literally the 
grant of land, property held by an individual; c/. "fee- 
simple.'' 

206. — quarry. A heap of slaughtered game. (Skeat.) 

208. — ne'er pull your hat. Shakespeare writes, conscious of 
the actor's part. 

210. — Whispers the o'erfraught heart. Whispers to; c/. 1. 
159. (Abbott, § 200.) 

212.— must. Was destined. (Abbott, § 314.) 

213.— I have said. Cf. Matthew, xxvi, 64. 

216. — He has no children. Malone referred "he" to Mal- 
colm, understanding the passage to mean — Malcolm has no 
children, and so cannot understand a father's grief. Steevens 
took the meaning as "Macduff could not, by retaliation, re- 
venge the murder of his children, because Macbeth had none; 
or that if he had any, a father's feelings would have prevented 
him from the deed." Nothing is gained for either of these in- 
terpretations by Buchanan's mention of Macbeth 's son Luthlac, 
who succeeded him on the throne; so far as this play is con- 
cerned Macbeth has no children. And the application to Mac- 
beth is of far greater dramatic weight. 

Symonds remarks : " Macbeth has several of these memorable 
condensations of a great matter into a little compass, of which 
Macduff's ^he has no children!' is perhaps the most famous in 
literature." 



ACT IV. sc. III.] NOTES 165 

217. — hell-kite. The kite is the bird of prey that prefers 
weak, sickly, or dead bodies. Macbeth added devihsh quah- 
ties ("hell-kite") to the nature of the bird of prey. 

218. — dam. Halliwell quotes " young chickens even from the 
dam,'' — Eliote's Dictionaries ed. Cooper, 1559. 

220. — Dispute it, etc. Turn your grief into fight. 

222. — such things were. Such things once existed; cf.Troja 
fuit. 

223. — that. Frequent after "such" in the sense of "as." 

225. — naught. Morally bad, wicked. 

229. — Convert. Change, turn; the intransitive use is rare. 

232. — intermission. Delay, respite; obsolete in this sense. 

— front to front. Face to face. (Fr. front, L. frontem, the 
forehead, face.) 

235. — tune. Folio ^ reads "time," amended by Rowe to 
"tune." 

236.— power. See 1. 185, n. 

237. — our lack . . . leave. We need nothing but our formal 
dismissal from the King. 

238. — powers above. This shows the counteraction allied 
with the heavenly powers in contrast with Macbeth 's union 
with the "instruments of darkness" in I, iii, 124. 

239. — put on. Set to work. 

— instruments. Agents, f . e., Macduff and Malcolm. 



Act Fifth 

The Fifth Act embodies the catastrophe of this play — in this 
tragedy a double catastrophe since Lady Macbeth is involved 
with Macbeth in the action. The clash of action and counter- 
action which has been preparing in the Fourth Act is here 
effected, and out of it comes the final solution of the business of 
the play. The catastrophe should be scanned for its threefold 
movement — the death of Lady Macbetli and Macbeth in the 
outer action, the mental tortures and world-weariness of their 
inner lives, the fulfilment of the prophecies in the supernatural 
action. 

Scene I 

Scene I. This scene is entirely Shakespeare's creation. 
Scattered through the action, apostrophe and soliloquy have 
made clear the story of Macbeth's inner life; but, except a few 
lines in III, ii, 4-7, there is no revelation of the real impressions 
of the action on Lady Macbeth. She thought to "unsex 
herself by her imperious will; what is the real story of her 
acts? her ambition? her physical reaction from murder and 
blood? her relation to her husband? to his later crimes? to hap- 
piness? to the hereafter? All this great interest Shakespeare 
has saved up and presents in this scene, and he makes the 
revelation probable, romantic, impressive by the circumstances 
of sleep-walking and the terrified listeners. 

Entrances. Physic. Medicine; now archaic. It was the 
custom then as now for people of high rank, especially sover- 
eigns, to have attendant physicians. 

— waiting gentlewoman. A female attendant (originally a 
gentlewoman by birth) upon a lady of rank, now only historical. 
(N. E. D.) By the custom of the time, which still prevails 
with royalty, women of rank were in the service of the queen; 
these were of gentle birth. 

Setting. Dunsinane. Here Macbeth had, according to 
Holinshed, built a mighty castle. It was over the building of 

166 



ACT V. sc. I.] NOTES 167 

this castle that the quarrel arose between Macbeth and Mac- 
duff, due to the refusal of Macduff to be present personally while 
his share of the undertaking was being accomplished. 

4. — went into the field. Engaged in military operations. 
(N. E. D.) This suggests Macbeth's side of IV, iii, 183, also 
the arrival in Scotland of the expedition mentioned in IV, iii, 
239, and Macbeth's operations against it. 

5. — nightgown. See II, ii, 70, n. 

6. — closet. The private apartment of a great personage. 

— take forth paper. A reminiscence of I, v, 1 ff. 

11. — effects of watching. The deeds of our waking hours. 

12. — slumbery agitation. Movement in sleep; sleep-walking. 

15. — after her. Giving her words. 

17. — witness to confirm. This prepares for the appalling 
scene to follow: the story is too dangerous for her to utter 
without witnesses against her queen. 

18a. — Enter Lady Macbeth. Note the enhancing of the so- 
liloquy by the presence of the watchers; they serve as chorus. 

19. — guise. Custom, practice. 

20. — close. Concealed. 

25. — sense is. Folio ^ reads "sense are." 

26.— rubs her hands. Cf. II, ii, 64. 

31.— Yet here's a spot. Story LXXIV of The Early English 
Versions of the Gesta Romanorum tells of a murderess who 
could not cleanse her hands of blood — ''no not water or any 
other liquor might wash it away.'' One version speaks of the 
stain as ''four circular marks." 

35.— One; two. An echo of II, i, 32, 62. 

36. — Hell is murky. A flash of the hereafter has appalled her 
here. 

— Fie. In earlier use expressive of disgust or indignant re- 
proach. (N. E. D.) 

37. — a soldier and afeard. Cf. I, vii, 39. 

38. — accompt. A variant form of " account. " 

39 f . — old man . . . blood in him. An echo of II, ii, bb, with 
the added touch of the horror of the murder scene, and of the 
strangeness of the persistence of the blood. We have all ex- 
perienced in dreams the persistent query. 

42.— Thane of Fife. Cf. IV, ii. 
44. — no more o' that. See III, iii, 53. 

45. — starting. The visible motion by which he had shown 
himself aware of the presence of the ghost of Banquo. 



168 MACBETH [act v. sc. i. 

46. — Go to. Usually an exclamation of impatient dismissal of 
the subject; cf. our modern "go on/' The Doctor has made up 
his mind thus far in the case and looks on that much as settled. 

47. — she has spoke, etc. The gentlewoman's faith in her 
mistress is merely shaken; she implies that the accusing words 
may be delirium. 

49. — smell of blood still. Again an echo of II, ii, bb, 64. Out 
of this and the preceding references we are able to build up the 
full story of the impression that the deed of crime made on Lady 
Macbeth, though at the time of the murder her physical reac- 
tions were controlled by her will. 

— perfumes of Arabia. Arabia from the earliest times was 
renowned for its perfumes, particularly frankincense. Her fame 
was diffused both by classical writers, such as Strabo and Pliny, 
but also by the Biblical narrative of the Nativity; the Psalm 
regarded as prophetic reads in the Prayer Book version, " The 
kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts,'' — Psalm Ixxii, 10. 

54. — dignity. Honor, rank. 

57. — beyond my practice. Cf. V, iii, 45. 

58. — which. ''Which" continued into El. E. its relative use ap- 
plied to persons; cf. " Our father which art in heaven, "Luke, xi,2. 

59. — holily. In holy fashion, with due religious rites. 

60.— Wash your hands. Cf. II, ii, 46 /., 67. 

— put on your nightgown. Cf. II, ii, 70. Folio ^ reads '* Put 
on your nightgown, look," etc. The scenes referred to are sepa- 
rate; hence the reading of our text. 

61.— Look not so pale. Cf. Ill, iv, 67. 

62. — on *s grave. Of his grave. According to N. E. D. both 
"of" and "on" were frequently reduced in speech to "o"'. 
Hence confusion arose, by which "on" was used for "of" and 
vice versa; cf. "fond on her," Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 
266; "dreams are made on," Tempest, I, ii, 87; "jealous on me," 
Julius Caesar, l,n, 71; and "death of thy soul," Mac6e^/i,V, iii, 16. 

63. — Even so? The Doctor is startled by the sudden clue to 
the murder of Banquo. 

64. — To bed. "Shakespeare makes the semiconscious pur- 
pose of getting to bed reflect Lady Macbeth back to her going to 
bed on the night of Duncan's murder, the knocking at the gate, 
Macbeth's dazed mental condition, and, supreme touch, the 
helpless regret of his 'Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I 
would thou could'st."^ (Liddell.) 

— knoxjking at the gate. Cf. II, ii, 65. 



ACT V. sc. II.] NOTES 169 

65/. — what's done. This is the fatalistic note which shuts 
the gate of repentance to them. 

73. — God forgive us all. ^'The words give a deep touch of 
human sympathy: the evidence of a terrible punishment for sin 
always makes the beholder feel the weakness of his own nature, 
'saved as by fire.''' (Liddell.) 

74. — means of all annoyance. Means of doing herself harm, 
i. e.j killing herself; this is the note of preparation for the catas- 
trophe of Lady Macbeth's end. 

76. — mated. Rendered helpless by terror, shame, dis- 
couragement. 

77. — Good-night, good doctor. These words mark the return 
to the ordinary relations of life after the tension of the scene. 

Scene II 

Scene n. This scene still further establishes the counterac- 
tion as the instruments put on by the powers above to rescue 
the country from the desperate rule of Macbeth. 

The details are suggested by Holinshed, § 18. 

Setting. The Country near Dunsinane. This is Capell's. 
According to Gorton, Topographical Dictionary, Dunsinane 
Hill is in Collace, Shire of Perth. On its summit is an oval 
area, encompassed by a double entrenchment, the site of the 
castle; and full in view is Birnam Wood. 

Entrances. Drum and colors. "Colors" means a flag, 
probably from the presence of several colors in the same flag. 

1. — power. See IV, iii, 185, n. 

2. — uncle Siward. King Duncan's wife was the daughter of 
Earl Siward. See Dramatis Personse, n. 

3. — revenges. Plural as indicating the different "causes" 
to be avenged. 

— dear. Precious, first in importance. 

4. — the bleeding and the grim alarm. Deeds of slaughter and 
war. "The" is used to express concreteness, even notoriety. 
(Abbott, § 92.) 

5. — mortified. Almost dead. The same idea is found in 
Julius Ccesar, Where Brutus 's words arouse the sick man 
Ligarius, "Thou like an exorcist hast conjured up My morti- 
fied spirit." (II, i, 323, 324.) 

—Birnam Wood, See IV, i, 93, n, 

6. — well. Advantageously. 



170 MACBETH [act v. sc. m. 

8.— file. See III, i, 95, n. 

10. — unrough. Beardless, smooth-faced. " Rough ^^ is fre- 
quent in El. E. for "hairy,'' similarly ''shaver'' imphed age 
(C/. Jew of Malta, II, iii.) 

11. — Protest their first of manhood. Publicly undertake for 
the first time the deeds of manhood; an echo of the primitive 
idea that the man is really a man only when he has killed an 
enemy. Liddell explains " their first of manhood " as the '' down 
on their unrough chins." 

— protest. See III, iv, 105, n. 

12. — Dunsinane he fortifies. See V, i, Setting. 

15. — buckle his distempered cause. His cause, what he 
stands for, has grown so bad that his control over his course of 
life is gone. The figure, of course, is from the disease of dropsy, 
due, as it was thought, to a lack of proportion ("distempered") 
in the humors of the body. 

17. — sticking. The echo answering Macbeth's own cry, 
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my 
hand?" (II, ii, 60 /.) It also indicates the harassed mind and 
trammelled action of the royal criminal. 

18. — minutely. Every minute; minute by minute. 

— faith-breach. An El. E. compound. See IV, iii, 133, n. 

20. — Nothing. Not at all; adverbial use. (Abbott, § 55.) 

21. — giant's robe. There is an unidentified folk-story in this 
allusion. 

23. — pestered senses. Trammelled, hence harassed. 

— to recoil. For recoiling; indefinite use of the infinite. 
(Abbott, § 356.) The passage echoes the flaws and starts of 
III, iv, 63. 

27. — The medicine of sickly weal. The man who can remedy 
the ills of the commonwealth — Malcolm. 

28. — purge. Cleansing, purification. 

30. — dew the sovreign flower. The new figure raises the tone 
of the conclusion of the scene; it is suggestive not only of the 
sovereignty of Malcolm, but of his power as a sovereign medi- 
cine, a medicine of the utmost healing power. 

Scene III 

Scene m. This scene gives by direct representation the 
state of Macbeth's mind, and indirectly that of his wife. Note 
that the representation of Lady Macbeth is direct in Scene i. 



ACT V. sc. III.] NOTES 171 

and indirect here; that of Macbeth is indirect in Scene ii, and 
direct here. 

It is based on HoHnshed, § 18, but Shakespeare's imagination 
creates the great human elements. 

1. — let them fly all. Let everybody desert if they will. 

3. — taint. Be infected with. 

5. — all mortal consequence. All things that are to happen to 
man; cf. "the life to come," I, vii, 7. 

7. — upon. Over. 

8. — epicures. In El E., gluttons. Holinshed records how 
the frugal Scots despised the English as great eaters — "the 
riotous manners and superfluous gormandizing brought in 
among them by the Englishmen. '^ 

9. — The mind I sway by. The mind that rules my actions; or 
(Liddell) the mind I govern by, hold my prestige. 

10. — sag. Droop, hang down by its weight or load; — pre- 
served in the United States and in the Yorkshire dialect. " She 
be sagged out," i. e., drooping with weariness. (Wright, Dial. 
Die.) Construe "sag" with "mind" and "shake" with 
"heart." 

10a. — Enter a servant. The servant's terror shows the de- 
moralized state of Macbeth's people. His appearance at once 
touches Macbeth 's nerves (1. 11) and renders visible to him the 
real state of his fortunes. 

11. — cream-faced. Picturesquely for "pale." 

— loon. (Dutch loen, fool.) A dialect word for stupid, 
clownish fellow; cf. "gray-beard loon" of The Aneient Mariner. 
It is still in common use in Scotland. 

15. — lily-livered. See II, ii, 65, n. 

— patch. By derivation either the It. pazzo (literally 
"mad"), the buffoon of the Itahan farce; or, more likely, from 
the patched, motley dress of the domestic fool of the Middle 
Ages. 

16.— Death of thy soul! Malediction! "Of" equals "on," see 
V, i, 7, n. 

17. — counsellors to fear. The sense is that pale cheeks speak 
terror — "they talk of fear," 1. 36; the construction is the same 
as in "purveyors to the king." 

— whey-face. Colorless, like "cream-faced," "linen cheeks." 
This is "whey " in the sense of a colorless liquid; with its mean- 
ing of acidity it gave rise to the word "Whig." 

19. — face. The figure gives force here as in IV, ii, 78. 



172 MACBETH [act v. sc. hi. 

— Seyton. His armor-bearer; see below, 1. 33, n. 

20. — push. Attack; as in "And sudden push gives them the 
overthrow/' {Julius Coesar, V, ii, 4.) 

21 . — chair me ever, or disseat me now. Folio ^ reads " cheere " 
and "dis-eate." Attempts have been made to amend this 
line by reading "disease" for "disseat,'' giving a contrast 
of "cheer" and "disease." The emendation is not to be 
accepted, because "disseat" is an echo of "vaulting am- 
bition, which o'erleaps itself," I, ii, 27, and because the 
spelling of "cheere" for "chair" (the emendation adopted) 
represents what was a common pronunciation of "chair" 
and is still in dialect use. "Chair" meaning throne is very- 
common (Dyce) in El. E. 

22, 23. — My way of life has fallen, etc. My course of life has 
declined into autumn. Note the effect of the passage in in- 
dicating the progress of time for Macbeth's reign. Cf. 

*'That time of year thou may'st in me behold 
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold." 

—Sonnets, LXXIII. 

— way. Dr. Johnson preferred to read "May." 

— sear. Here either a noun in the sense of "dry, with- 
ered condition" or an adjective "withered" qualifying 
"leaf." 

25. — as. Frequently used without "such" in the sense of 
"namely." (Abbott, § 113.) 

28. — mouth-honor. An El. compound; cf. "breathing 
courtesy." (Merchant of Venice j V, i, 141.) 

33. — give me my armor. The Setons of Touch were, and 
still are, hereditary armor-bearers to the kings of Scotland. 
(French, quoted by Furness.) 

35. — moe. More (of number). (A. S. ma, of adverbial 
origin, gave Mid. E. mo, El. E. moe; A. S. mara gave Mid. E. 
more.) 

— skirr. A variant of scour, to pass over rapidly as on horse- 
back. 

37. — your patient. The Doctor is now treated with courtesy, 
as evidenced by the use of "your," but touching Macbeth by his 
answer the latter breaks out in the more impassioned "thou" 
of 1. 40. The Doctor, of course, always uses " you " to Macbeth; 
see 1. 55. 



ACT V. sc. III.] NOTES 173 

40. — mind diseased. Macbeth passes to his own case. 

" Macbeth 's insanity, hke Hamlet's, is but suggested to the 
reader: Shakespeare is too much of a poet to declare explicitly 
what insanity is, or to label Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Mac- 
beth as mad. They have all ' a fever of the mad ' in them that 
lifts them out of the common range of experience and makes 
them interesting. Moreover the phenomena of insanity in 
Shakespeare's time were vague and mysterious, as is evident 
from Burton's treatment of the subject. The abnormal acts 
of Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello belong to that border- 
land of diseased mentality which in Elizabethan, as in classic 
phraseology, was denoted by the term ^melancholy.' Macbeth 
does not understand human and divine laws, — ^non cognoscit 
homines, non cognoscit leges,' — Lear and Othello do not un- 
derstand women, Hamlet does not understand himself; this 
touch of the mad, this lack of balance of soul and mind, this 
'mind diseased' and all its havoc of human life and human 
hopes, are the theme of Shakespeare's great tragedies. In 
Hamlet and Macbeth the exciting influences of the tragedy come 
from without, the ghost in the one case, the witches in the 
other; in Othello and Lear they work from within, rising from a 
natural jealousy and suspicion rendered inordinate by an 
inordinate love. In all it is their failure to understand the 
souls of men and the laws of life that gives the deep pathos." 
(Liddell.) 

42. — Raze out. Erase. 

— written. On the "tablets of the mind." 

43. — oblivious. Bringing oblivion, a transferred epithet; of. 
lago's "drowsy syrups." (Othello, III, iii, 331.) 

47. — physic. Medicine. 

48. — staff. Lance, spear; sometimes interpreted as the 
general's baton, but cf. "staves," V, vii, 18. 

50, 51. — cast the water. To diagnose disease by inspection 
of urine, an ordinary proceeding in Elizabethan medical 
practice. 

54. — Puirt off. The piece of armor which in his unrest he is 
now taking off. Notice again how Shakespeare writes con- 
scious of the cooperation of action and language in the work of 
the drama. 

55. — rhubarb. The drug, and not the edible plant. 

— senna. Folio ^ reads "Cyme," apparently a printer's 
error for "cynne, " as Folio ^ reads '^ caeny "; pronounced 



174 MACBETH Tact v. sc. iv. 

see'ny, it would represent a pronunciation still current in 
dialect. 

58.— it. See 1. 5, n. 

59. — bane. Murder, destruction; — obsolete in this sense. 
(A. S. banay death, destruction.) 

Scene IV 

Scene IV. Following his dramatic method, Shakespeare pre- 
sents the drawing near of two armies by a succession of short 
scenes alternating from one side to the other. 

The details are based on the Holinshed story, § 19. 

1. — cousins. See IV, ii, 14, n. 

2.— That. When. (Abbott, § 284.) 

— chambers will be safe. /. e., from Macbeth^s mad acts; 
seelll, vi, 32-35;IV, iii, 5. 

4. — Let every soldier hew him down a bough. "This strata- 
gem is of great antiquity. It is recorded in a Life of Alexander y 
a MS. of the fifteenth century preserved in the library of 
Lincoln Cathedral. According to Lambarde, 1577, Topo- 
graphical Dictionary of England, it was used in England when 
William the Conqueror moved on Dover Castle after the battle 
of Hastings. (J. O. Halliwell-Phillips, Cursory Memoranda on 
Shakespeare's Tragedy of '^Macbeth.") 

5. — shadow. Shelter, screen, conceal. 

6. — discovery. Pron. as a trisyllable; reconnaissance; — 
obsolete in this sense. 

10. — setting down before it. Laying siege to it; note that the 
phrase is the etymological equivalent of besiege. {Siege, Fr. 
siege, L. sedes, seat.) Modern usage would require "sitting." 

11. — where there is advantage to be given. The sense of this 
line is — Wherever there was a chance of success people re- 
volted. For "advantage, " see I, ii, 31, n. 

— to be given. Here used absolutely, so that the phrase 
equals "any advantage given." Some conjecture the proper 
reading to be "to be gotten, or "to be gone." 

12. — more and less. High and low. 

14. — censures. Judgments, criticism. (Lat. censeOy I judge); 
— now obsolete in this sense. 

15. — attend the true event. Await the facts of the issue. 

18. — What we shall . . . owe. "Property and allegiance" 
(Warburton); "our rights and duties" (Singer). But the pas- 



ACT V. sc. v.] NOTES 175 

sage suggests rather the decision of the court of justice (here 
the judicial trial by combat) which determines what the con- 
testants are adjudged to hold or to pay over. 

19. — speculative. Pronounced here as a trisyllable. Men 
may tell what they surmise, but without certainty of the issue. 

20. — certain issue strokes must arbitrate. This repeats the 
thought in Julius CoesaTj V, i, 48 — " If arguing makes us sweat, 
The proof of it will turn to ruddy drops." Cf. 1. 18, n. 

Scene V 

Scene V. See the introductory note to Scene iv. This scene 
presents two great elements of the action, the final touch of 
catastrophe in the case of Lady Macbeth, and the final touch 
of world-weariness and pessimism of life that mark the close of 
Macbeth's way of life. In this respect his life takes on a tragic 
aspect. 

For the slight details from Holinshed, see § 19. 

1. — outward. Exterior, obsolete in this sense; not the keep 
of the castle, but the walls of the outer court. This suggests the 
first attack in the castle. Keightley changed the reading to 
"... banners I On the outward walls the cry is . . ."; his ar- 
gument was that the banners flew from the keep, not the walls. 

3. — laugh a siege to scorn. The story suggested in V, iv, 9, 

10, is now completed. 

5. — forced. Strengthened, reinforced. 

6. — dareful. Full of defiance. 

—beard to beard. Cf. "front to front,'' IV, iii, 232; it con- 
tains the suggestion of the soldier "bearded like pard," {As 
You Like It, II, vii, 150.) 

7. — beat. Variant form in El. E. of beaten. See IV, i, 145, n. 

9. — forgot. Variant form in El. E. of forgotten. 

10. — senses would have cooled. The child of terror affecting 
all physical powers. 

11. — night-shriek. Such as the owFs. That time passed at 

11, ii, 16. 

— fell. A covering of hair or wool, especially when thick or 
matted; formerly often used in this phrase, but now only of the 
hides of animals. 

12. — a dismal treatise. A tragic story. 

— rouse, and stir. Cf. I, iii, 135, n. 

13.— As. As if. (Abbott, § 107.) 



176 MACBETH [act v. sc. v. 

— supped full with horrors. Horrors are as familiar as daily 
bread. 

14. — Direness. A high degree of horror. (Lat. dims, fearful.) 

— slaughterous. Murderous. 

15. — start me. Make me start. 

17. — she should have died. Macbeth ^s apathy of desperation 
here shows its fatalistic bent, — some day or other she was due 
to die. But some interpret — " Her death should have been de- 
ferred to a more peaceful hour; had she lived longer, there would 
at length have been a time for the honors due her as a queen " 
(Johnson). 

18. — word. Tidings of her death. 

19. — to-morrow. Farmer quotes — 

"They follow the crow's cry to their great sorrow — 
Cras, eras, eras, to-morrow we shall amend." 

—Barclay, Ship of Fools (1570). 

20. — creeps. That is, each to-morrow creeps. (Clark- Wright.) 

21. — recorded time. To the last syllable of the record of 
time (Hudson); cf. George Eliot's "our human scroll'' for the 
completed stretch of human life this side eternity. 

23. — dusty death. Cf. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return.'' (Genesis, iii, 19); "Dust to dust; ashes to 
ashes." (Prayer Book, "Burial Service.") 

— brief candle. "Short-lived flame of existence; recurring to 
the metaphor of 1. 22. ^ How oft is the candle of the wicked 
put out,' Job, xxi, 17; see also xviii, 6, and Psalm xviii, 28." 
(Verity.) 

Allen thinks that there is a suggestion of the ignis fatuus, 
"fool's light," in the passage. 

24. — shadow. Picture; — a frequent sense in El. E. 

— poor player. Again the sense of reality is heightened by an 
allusion to the stage. 

25. — frets. Contemptuous for the actor's presentation of 
passions. 

28. — Signifying. Macbeth's monologue here is full of the 
pessimistic expression of the final state of his mind — the Nemesis 
of his crime, the catastrophe of the inner action, the settlement 
of his account with life — " nought's had, all's spent." Contrast 
the glory of his life at its height — I, ii, 16-24. 

30. — Gracious my lord. Gracious is used as a courteous 
epithet in referring to royalty; " my lord," as a title is thought of 



ACT V. sc. VI.] NOTES 177 

as one word, hence the place of the adjective. (C/. " Gentle 
my lord/' III, ii, 27, n ; and Fr. cher monsieur , un milord, etc.) 

31. — should. Ought to; see I, iii, 45, n. 

33. — the hill. Dunsinane Hill; see IV, i, 93, n. 

37. — this three mile. "Three mile" is thought of as a unit 
of distance; a league. Birnam is really twelve miles from 
Dunsinane. 

40. — cling thee. Cause thy body to shrivel and waste away. 
(A. S. clingan, to shrivel.) 

— sooth. Truth. (A. S. sothy truth.) 

42. — I pull in resolution. He is now less resolute and less 
certain in his own mind of the outcome; the figure is of a horse- 
man who checks his headlong speed as the road grows uncertain. 

43. — doubt. Fear. (O. Fr. doute meant both doubt and fear.) 

— equivocation. Using a word in more than one sense; am- 
biguity; particularly used where a part of the statement is sup- 
pressed, to allow the hearer to be misled. See II, iii, 10, n, 

47. — avouches. Asserts as truths. 

49. — a-weary of the sun. An El. phrase (Liddell) for tedium 
vitce. Note the bearing of this on the atmosphere of night 
throughout the play. 

— a-weary. Intensive of "weary." 

50. — wish the estate of the world, etc. Macbeth wishes the 
established order of things swept away. He offers a brilliant 
condensation of the picture of the end of the world given in 
Revelation, vi, 12-16. 

51. — alarum bell. Call to arms; c/. II, iii, 65, n. The bell 
was so used in Othello (II, iii, 161). 

— wrack. Destruction, ruin, as in "rack and ruin," though 
here the earlier "w" has been lost. 

52. — harness. Armor. 

Scene VI 

Scene VI. This advances the action to the crisis of attack. It 
develops the story suggested in V, v, 37. 

The details are from Holinshed, § 20. 

1. — leavy. Leafy, but the form leavy is more in accordance 
with the rule for the softening of the final consonant; cf. leaf, 
leaves. 

4. — battle. Division in battle array; cf. Julius Coesar, V, i, 4. 

6. — our order. Plan of battle. (Liddell.) 

7. — do we but find. Inverted condition, if we do. 



178 MACBETH [act v. sc. vii-viii. 

— power. See IV, iii, 185, n. 

10. — harbingers. Usually forerunners effecting the prepara- 
tions for the lodging of great folk travelling. 

Scene VII 

Scene VU. The scene is planned to alternate the two sides 
of the action and so advance the whole story up to the catas- 
trophe. Macbeth^s success against young Siward is a point of 
success to emphasize the final fall. 

The details are from Holinshed, §§ 20, 21. 

1. — tied me to a stake. A metaphor from the sport of bear- 
baiting, in which " the bear was tied to a stake and baited with 
dogs, a certain number at a time. Each of these attacks was 
technically termed a course. '' — Aldis Wright (N. E. D.). The 
sport was a favorite with the Elizabethans, and buildings were 
erected for the observation of the sport; plays were often acted 
in the ^^bear-gardens.'' 

2. — course. See above. 

—What's he. Who can he be. (Abbott, § 254.) 

16. — haunt me. — Macduff feels himself responsible for the loss 
of his family, and as nearest kinsman must exact the payment 
of atoning blood. 

17. — wretched kerns. Here used generally for the poor rank 
and file; cf. I, ii, 13, n. 

18. — staves. Spears, lances. 

— either. The metre requires the one-syllable pronuncia- 
tion ^'or." 

22. — bruited. Noisily announced. (F. bruit, noise, clamor.) 

24. — gently rendered. Surrendered with little opposition or 
fighting. 

27. — day . . . professes yours. The victory almost declares 
itself yours. 

29. — strike beside us. We have met foes who have joined our 
ranks and fight on our side. Clark- Wright and Verity interpret 
— deliberately miss us. 

Scene VIII 

Scene Vm. This presents the main catastrophe. 
The details are from Holinshed, § 20. 

In the Folio this scene up to 1. 34 was incorporated in Scene 
VII. Dyce amended it. 



ACT V. sc. VIII.] NOTES 179 

1. — Roman fool, and die, etc. A reference to the frequent 
death of the Roman soldier who, when the field went against 
him, fell on his sword; Cato of Utica, Brutus, and Cassius all met 
death in that fashion. Macbeth still feels confidence in the 
oracles and despises the Roman fashion. 

2. — whiles. See I, v, 6, n. 

— lives. Living men. 

3.— hell-hound. See "hell-kite,'' IV, iii, 217, n. 

4. — Of all men else. A confusion of two constructions — 
*^all men'' and "more than any one else." (Abbott, § 409.) 

6. — get thee back. In the field of battle the older and better 
Macbeth returns: this enhances his tragic end. 

7. — bloodier villain than. Transposed adjective — a char- 
acteristic of the style of this play. 

9. — intrenchant. Incapable of being cut. The form is 
active, "cutting," but the participial ending with Shakespeare 
had both the active and passive meaning. (Abbott, § 3.) 

11. — crests. The apexes of the helmets; hence the helmets 
or headpieces. 

13.— Despair thy charm. "Of" omitted. (Abbott, § 200.) 

14. — angel. The devil. "Angel" was used in El. E. as a 
common term for either good or bad spirits. 

— still. Ever. 

15. — Macduff was from his mother's womb. See Holinshed, 
§ 19. 

16. — untimely ripped. The release from the mother's womb 
of a child which could not be born naturally because of some 
malformation, was done by cutting; the operation is called the 
Caesarian section (Caesar was so bornj. In mythology such a 
birth is ascribed to many heroes. 

18. — my better part of man. "The better part of my man- 
hood" (Clark- Wright); but possibly "spirit" as against 
body; c/. 

*' My better parts 
Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up 
Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block." 

— As You Like It, I, ii, 261 ff. 

19.— juggling fiends. Cf. Ill, v, and IV, i. 

20. — palter. Shift, shuffle, play fast and loose. 

24. — show and gaze. That which is shown and stared at; 
the reference is to the wonders shown at fairs. In The Tempest, 
Trinculo thinks what a show piece Caliban would make: — " Were 



180 MACBETH [act v. sc. viii. 

I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, 
not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. . . . 
There would this monster make a man; any strange beast there 
makes a man. (II, ii, 28 ff.) 

25, 26. — monsters Painted upon a pole. The picture hung on 
a pole outside the booth in which the monsters were exhibited. 

29. — baited. Worried by dogs; hence harassed. C/. V, vii, 
1., n. 

32.— the last. The last oracle; IV, i, 79 ff. 

33. — throw. The significant end of the parley. Shake- 
speare suits the action to the word and the word to the action 
here as elsewhere. 

34. — damned be him. In strict grammar "damned be he." 
The use of him here is brought about by such constructions as, 
"Let him be damned," 2> Henry IV, I, ii, 39, and "Fare thee 
(for thou) well," etc. 

— "Hold, enough!" "To cry hold is the word of yielding." 
(Carew's Survey of Cornwall, cited by Toilet.) 

34a. — Exeunt fighting. The stage directions of Folio^ are 
here followed against the modern emendations. The evident 
purpose of the Folio is to show the confusion and hurly-burly 
of battle. Macbeth and Macduff fight as they go out; they are 
still fighting as they come on again in the press, when Macbeth 
is slain and borne off in the retreat. When Malcolm and his 
party reach the spot, Macduff reappears with the gory head of 
his enemy as proof of victory. 

35. — Here Scene viii, according to Folio^ begins. 

36.— go off. Die. 

39. — soldier's debt. Service due by a soldier. 

40. — Only lived but tifl. Pleonasm for emphasis, common 
in El. E. (Abbott, § 130.) This coincides with "protest their 
first of manhood," V, ii, 11. 

41.— the which. Cf. Ill, i, 16, n. 

— prowess. Here monosyllable. 

42. — unshrinking station. The place in which he fought un- 
shrinking. 

47. — God's soldier be he. An echo of the spirit of the Cru- 
saders. 

49. — wish him to a fairer death. "Wish" is used in the sense 
of "commend"; cf, "I will wish him to her father." {Taming 
of the Shrew, I, i, 113.) 

50.— knoUed. Variant form of "knell." 



ACT V. SC. VIII.] NOTES 181 

52. — parted well. A comparison with a traveller leaving 
the inn. 

53a. — with Macbeth' s head. The Folio adds " on a pole.'' 

55. — time is free. "Time" here almost in the sense of 
kingdom. 

56. — thy kingdom's pearl. Cf. " country's honor," III, iv, 40; 
— the best men of thy kingdom. "Pearl" is here collective. 
Macduff sees a crown of manhood as the loyal nobles circle 
their King. 

62. — make us even. By reward. 

63. — earls, the first. "At his coming, many of them that 
were thanes afore, were made earls; as Fife, Menteith, Athol, 
Lennox, Murray, Caithness, Ross, and Angus. This was the 
first earls this time among us." — Hector Boece (Bellenden), 277. 

64. — What's more to do. To be done. 

65. — Which would be planted newly with the time. What 
new things should be undertaken with new times. 

66.— As. See V, iii, 23, n. 

— exiled friends. Cf. Ill, vi, 48. 

68. — producing forth. Bringing forth (for punishment). 

— ministers. Agents. 

69. — dead butcher and his fiend-like queen. This is the view 
of external justice merely. 

The term "butcher" applied to Macbeth is an echo of Bel- 
lenden 's tr. of Hector Boece, who calls him " this bloody flesch- 
oure" (i. e., butcher). 

70. — self. Own; obsolete in this use. 

72. — grace of Grace. Divine guidance; "Grace" used for the 
source of grace — God. 

74, 75. — one, Scone. One, formerly pron. one; hence the 
rime. 



THE SCOTLAND 

OF 

••Macbeth" 

SCALE OF MILES 

I I I I ' I 1 

10 20 30 40 50 




L.L. POATES CO., N.Y. 



The Scotland of "Macbeth" 



APPENDIX I 

HOLINSHED^S STORY OF MACBETH 

From Ralph Holinshed^s Chronicle of Scotland, 1577. The 
speUing and punctuation are modernized, and the less impor- 
tant elements of the narrative summarized [ ] or abbreviated 
(. . .)• Unusual words or senses are glossed in parentheses. 

1. The Reign of Duncan. 

After Malcolm, succeeded his nephew Duncan, the son of his 
daughter Beatrice; for Malcolm had two daughters, the one 
which was this Beatrice. . . . The other, called Doada, was 
married unto Sinel, the Thane of Glamis, by whom she had 
issue, one Macbeth, a valiant gentleman, and one that if he 
had not been somewhat cruel of nature might have been 
thought most worthy the government of a realm. On the other 
part, Duncan was so soft and gentle of nature that the people 
wished the inclinations and manners of these two cousins to 
have been so tempered and interchangeably bestowed betwixt 
them, that where the one had too much of clemency, and the 
other of cruelty, the mean virtue betwixt these two extremities, 
might have reigned by indifferent {equal) partition in them both, 
so should Duncan have proved a worthy king, and Macbeth 
an excellent captain. 

The beginning, of Duncan's reign was very quiet and peace- 
able, without any notable trouble; but after it was perceived 
how negligent he was in punishing offenders, many misruled 
persons took occasion thereof to trouble the peace and quiet 
state of the commonwealth, by seditious commotions which 
had their first beginnings in this wise. 

2. The Rebellion of the West. {Macbeth, I, ii.) 

Banquo, the Thane of Lochaber, of whom the house of Stu- 
arts is descended ... as he gathered the finances due to the 
king, and further punished somewhat sharply such as were 

183 



184 APPENDIX I 

notorious offenders, being assailed by a number of rebels inhab- 
iting in that country, and spoiled of the money and all other 
things, had much ado to get away with life after he had re- 
ceived sundry grievous wounds amongst them. Yet escaping 
their hands, after he was somewhat recovered of his hurts and 
was able to ride, he repaired to the court, where making his com- 
plaint to the king in most earnest wise, he purchased (brought it 
about) at length that the offenders were sent for by a sergeant- 
at-arms, to appear to make answer unto such matters as should 
be laid to their charge. But they, augmenting their mischiev- 
ous acts with a more wicked deed, after they had misused the 
messenger with sundry kinds of reproaches, they finally slew 
him also. 

Then, doubting not but for such contemptuous demeanor 
against the king^s regal authority they should be invaded with 
all the power the king could make, Macdowald, one of great esti- 
mation among them, making first a confederacy with his near- 
est friends and kinsmen, took upon him to be chief captain of all 
such rebels as would stand against the king, in maintenance 
of the grievous offences lately committed against him. . . . He 
used also such subtle persuasions and forged allurements, that 
in a small time he had got together a mighty power of men. 
For out of the Western Isles, there came unto him a great multi- 
tude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebel- 
lious quarrel, and out of Ireland in hope of the^ spoil came no 
small number of kerns and gallowglasses, offering gladly to 
serve under him. . . . Macdowald thus having a mighty puis- 
sance (force) about him, encountered with such of the king's 
people as were sent against him into Lochaber, and discom- 
fiting (defeating) them, by fine (sheer) force took their captain 
Malcolm, and after the end of the battle smote off his head. 

This overthrow being notified to the king, did put him in 
wonderful fear, by reason of his small skill in warlike affairs. 
Calling therefore his nobles to a council he asked them of their 
best advice for the subduing of Macdowald and other the rebels. 

Here, in sundry heads, as it ever happeneth, began sundry 
opinions, which they uttered according to every man his skill, 
at length Macbeth, speaking much against the king's softness 
and over much slackness in punishing offenders ... he prom- 
ised notwithstanding, if the charge were committed unto him 
and to Banquo, so to order the matter, that the rebels should be 
shortly vanquished and quite put down, and that not so 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OF IVIACBETH 185 

much as one of them should be found to make resistance 
within the country. 

And even so it came to pass; for being sent forth with a new 
power, at his entering into Lochaber, the fame of his coming 
put the enemies in such fear that a great number of them stole 
secretly away from their captain Macdowald, who nevertheless, 
enforced thereto, gave battle unto Macbeth, with the residue 
which remained with him. [Macdowald was defeated and fled 
to the castle where his family was. Finding defence impossible, 
he killed his wife and children and then himself. On enter- 
ing the castle Macbeth caused the head of the dead rebel to be 
cut off and set on a pole. He then sent it as a present to the 
king. The body he had hung high on a gallows. When the 
men of the Western Isles sued for pardon he mulcted them of 
heavy fines, and took those whom he found in arms in Lochaber 
and put them to death. This course earned him the hatred 
of the Islesmen, but finally he restored order.] 

3. Macbeth's Victory over the Danes. {Macbethy I, ii.) 

Thus was justice and law restored again to the old accus- 
tomed course by the diligent means of Macbeth. Immediately 
whereupon word came that Sweno, King of Norway, was ar- 
rived in Fife with a puissant {powerful) army to subdue the 
whole realm of Scotland. 

This Sweno was the son of Sweno, the Danish conqueror of 
England. . . . The pretence of his coming was to revenge the 
slaughter of his uncle Camus, and other of the Danish nation 
slain at Barre Crowdane and Gemmer. The cruelty of this 
Sweno was such that he neither spared man, woman, nor child, 
of what age, condition, or degree soever they were. 

[Duncan roused by the necessity assembled an army against 
Sweno, of which one division was headed by Macbeth, another 
by Banquo, and the third he commanded himself. The armies 
met at Culross, where the Scotch were defeated after a battle 
which tried the victors almost as much as the vanquished. For 
this reason the advantage was not pursued. The Danes put to 
death only those found with arms. Duncan fled to the castle of 
Bertha, while Macbeth raised new forces. Sweno besieged the 
castle, and Duncan, having sent word to Macbeth to wait at 
Inchcuthill for further orders, put himself into communication 
with Sweno and pretended to be willing to yield the castle. As 
evidence of his good faith he sent much-needed supplies to the 



186 APPENDIX I 

Danish army. With the ale and bread the Scots mixed the 
juice of meiklewort berries, which had the effect of sending the 
Danes into such a deep sleep that they fell easy victims to Mac- 
beth, to whom Duncan had sent word of his stratagem. Sweno 
and ten others alone escaped to the ships. These they found 
almost deserted, for the sailors had come to the castle for the 
Scottish good cheer. But one ship was with difficulty manned, 
and in that he sailed away. While the Scottish were still occu- 
pied with rejoicing, word was brought that Canute, King of Eng- 
land, was on his way to revenge his brother Sweno 's overthrow.] 
To resist these enemies, which were already landed and busy 
in spoiling the country, Macbeth and Banquo were sent with the 
king's authority, who having with them a convenient power 
{adequate force), encountered the enemies, slew part of them, 
and chased the other to their ships. They that escaped and got 
once to their ships obtained of Macbeth for a great sum of gold 
that such of their friends as were slain at this last bickering 
(conflict) might be buried in Saint Colme's Inch. In memory 
whereof, many old sepultures are yet in the said Inch, there 
to be seen graven with the arms of the Danes, as the manner of 
burying noblemen still is, and heretofore hath been used. A 
peace was also concluded at the same time betwixt the Danes 
and Scottishmen. . . . 

4. The Meeting with the Witches. (Macbeth, I, iii.) 

Shortly after happened a strange and uncouth (rare) wonder, 
which afterward was the cause of much trouble in the land of 
Scotland, as ye shall after hear. It fortuned (happened) as Mac- 
beth and Banquo journeyed toward Forres, where the king as 
then lay, they went sporting by the way together without other 
company, save only themselves, passing through the woods and 
fields, when suddenly in the midst of a laund (grassy plain) there 
met them three women in strange and ferly (wild) apparel, re- 
sembling creatures of an elder world, whom when they atten- 
tively beheld, wondering much at the sight, the first of them 
spake and said: "All hail, Macbeth, Thane of Glamis!" (for 
he had lately entered into that dignity and office by the death 
of his father Sinel). The second of them said: " Hail, Macbeth, 
Thane of Cawdor!" but the third said: "All hail, Macbeth, 
that hereafter shall be King of Scotland! '' 

Then Banquo: " What manner of women," saith he, ''are you, 
that seem so little favorable unto me, where as to my fellow 



IIOLINSHED'S STORY OF MACBETH 187 

here, besides high offices, ye assign also the kingdom, appointing 
forth nothing for me at all?'' "Yes,'' saith the first of them, 
"we promise greater benefits unto thee than unto him; for he 
shall reign indeed but with an unlucky end; neither shall he 
leave any issue behind him to succeed in his place, where contra- 
rily thou indeed shalt not reign at all, but of thee those shall be 
born which shall govern the Scottish kingdom by long order of 
continual descent." Herewith the foresaid women vanished 
immediately out of their sight. This was reputed at the first 
but some vain fantastical illusion by Macbeth and Banquo, in- 
somuch that Banquo would call Macbeth in jest, King of Scot- 
land; and Macbeth again would call him in sport likewise the 
father of many kings. But afterward the common opinion 
was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is, as 
ye would say, the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or 
fairies, endued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromanti- 
cal science, because everything came to pass as they had spoken. 
For shortly after, the Thane of Cawdor being condemned at 
Forres of treason against the king committed, his lands, livings, 
and offices were given of the king's liberality to Macbeth. The 
same night after, at supper, Banquo jested with him and said: 
" Now Macbeth thou hast obtained those things which the two 
former {first) sisters prophesied, there remaineth only for thee 
to purchase (get) that which the third said should come to pass." 
Whereupon Macbeth revolving the thing in his mind, began even 
then to devise how he might attain to the kingdom; but yet he 
thought with himself that he must tarry a time, which should 
advance him thereto, by the divine providence, as it had come 
to pass in his former preferment. 

5. Malcolm made Prince of Cumberland. (Macbeth j I, iv.) 

But shortly after it chanced that King Duncan, having two 
sons by his wife, which was the daughter of Siward earl of 
Northumberland, he made the elder of them, cleped (called) 
Malcolm, Prince of Cumberland, as it were thereby to appoint 
him his successor in the kingdom immediately after his decease. 

Macbeth sore troubled herewith, for that he saw by this 
means his hope sore hindered, where by the old laws of the realm 
the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of 
able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of 
blood unto him should be admitted, he began to take counsel 
how he might usurp the kingdom by force, having a just quarrel 



188 APPENDIX I 

(cause) so to do, as he took the matter, for that Duncan 
did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title 
and claim, which he might in time to come pretend unto 
(lay claim to) the crown. 

The words of the three weird sisters also, of 

Prophecies whom ye have heard, greatly encouraged him 

move men to hereunto, but specially his wife lay sore upon 

unlawful at- him to attempt the thing, as she that was very 

tempta. ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to 

bear the name of a Queen. 

6. Duncan's Murder. (Macbeth, II, ii.) 

At length therefore, communicating his purposed intent with 
his trusty friends, amongst whom Banquo was the chiefest, upon 
confidence of their promised aid, he slew the king at Inver- 
ness, or as some say at Botgosuane, in the sixth year of his reign. 

(At this point Shakespeare uses suggestions from Holin- 
shed's story of the murder of King Duff, Duncan's great-great- 
uncle, by Donwald and his wife.) 

[King Duff incurred the enmity of his turbulent nobles by 
enforcing the laws against them. He then fell into a languish- 
ing disease, and there was a murmuring amongst the people 
that it was no natural ailment, but the result of magic, prac- 
tised by certain witches at Forres. King Duft' sent there to in- 
vestigate this rumor, and his messengers to the castle of one 
Donwald, who had always been faithful to the king. It was 
found that the soldiers had a clear knowledge of the rumor, for 
one of them kept a young woman who was the daughter of one 
of the supposed witches.] 

Whereupon learning by her confession in what house in the 
town it was where they wrought their mischievous mystery, he 
sent forth soldiers about the midst of the night, who breaking 
into the house, found one of the witches roasting upon a wooden 
broach (spit) an image of wax at the fire, resembling in each 
feature the king's person, made and devised, as is to be thought, 
by craft and art of the devil; another of them reciting certain 
words of enchantment, and still (ever) basted the image with a 
certain liquor very busily. The soldiers finding them occupied 
in this wise, took them, together with the image, and led them 
into the castle, where being straitly examined for what pur- 
pose they went about such manner of enchantment, they an- 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OF MACBETH 189 

swered, to the end to make away the king; for as the image did 
waste afore the fire, so did the body of the king break forth in 
sweat. And as for the words of the enchantment, they served 
to keep him still waking from sleep, so that as the wax ever 
melted, so did the king's flesh; by the which means it should 
have come to pass that when the wax was once clean consumed 
the death of the king should immediately follow. So were they 
taught by evil spirits, and hired to work the feat by the nobles 
of Murrayland. The standers by, when they heard such an 
abominable tale told by these witches, straightway brake the 
image and caused the witches (according as they had well de- 
served) to be burnt to death. 

[King Duff, restored to health, organized an expedition, pur- 
sued and captured some of the rebel nobles, among whom were 
relatives of Donwald's, and put them to death. Donwald in- 
terceded for his kinsmen, pleading his loyal service, but met 
with refusal. He brooded upon the king's lack of gratitude, 
and entertained thoughts of revenge, to which his wife urged 
him. When she thoroughly understood his state of mind 
counselled him: "Sith {since) the king used (is accustomed) to 
lodge in his house without any guard about him, other than the 
garrison of the castle, which was wholly at his commandment, 
to make him away, and showed him the means whereby he 
might soonest accomplish it."] 

Donwald being thus the more kindled in wrath by the words 
of his wife, determined to follow her advice in the execution of 
so heinous an act. Whereupon devising with himself for awhile 
which way he might best accomplish his cursed intent, at length 
got opportunity, and sped his purpose as followeth. It chanced 
that the king upon the day before he purposed to depart forth of 
the castle, was long in his oratory at his prayers, and there con- 
tinued till it was late in the night. At the last, coming forth, 
he called such afore him as had faithfully served him in pursuit 
and apprehension of the rebels, and giving them hearty thanks, 
he bestowed sundry honorable gifts amongst them, of the which 
number Donwald was one, as he that had been ever accounted a 
most faithful servant to the king. 

At length, having talked with them a long time, he got him 
into his private chamber, with two of his chamberlains only, 
who having brought him to bed, came forth again, and fell to 
banqueting with Donwald and his wife . . . till they had 
charged their stomachs with such full gorge that their heads 



190 APPENDIX I 

were no sooner got to the pillow but asleep they were to fall, 
that a man might have removed the chamber over them sooner 
than to have awaked them out of their drunken sleep. 

Then Donwald, though he abhorred the act greatly in heart, 
yet through the instigation of his wife he called four of his ser- 
vants unto him . . . and now declaring unto them after what 
sort they should work the feat they gladly obeyed his in- 
structions, and speedily going about the murder, they entered 
the chamber in which the king lay, a little before cock's crow, 
where they secretly cut his throat as he lay sleeping. 

[The body was removed at once to the fields, and there buried 
in the bed of the stream. This was done at Donwald 's request, 
in order that the corpse might never identify him as the mur- 
derer by bleeding in his presence — a popular superstition.] 

Donwald, about the time that the murder was in doing, got 
him amongst them that kept the watch, and so continued in 
company with them all the residue of the night. But in the 
morning when the noise was raised in the king's chamber how 
the king was slain, his body conveyed away, and the bed. all 
bewrayed (defiled) with blood; he with the watch ran thither, 
as though he had known nothing of the matter, and breaking 
into the chamber, and finding cakes of blood in the bed, and on 
the floor about the side of it, he forthwith slew the chamber- 
lains, as guilty of that heinous murder, and then like a mad man 
running to and fro, he ransac^ied every corner within the castle, 
as though it had been to have seen if he might have found either 
the body, or any of the murderers hid in any privy place; but at 
length coming to the postern gate and finding it open he bur- 
dened the chamberlains whom he had slain with all the fault, 
they having the keys of the gates committed to their keeping 
all the night, and therefore it could not have been otherwise, 
said he, but that they were of counsel in the committing of that 
most detestable murder. 

[Donwald's excess of zeal brought suspicion on him as the real 
murderer, but the nobles present decided not to utter what they 
thought ^'till time and place should better serve thereunto."] 

7. Omens at the Death of Scottish Kings. {Macbeth, 
II, iii, iv.) 

[Of King Duff.] For the space of six months after this heinous 
murder then committed, there appeared no sun by day nor 
moon by night in any part of the realm, but still was the sky 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OF MACBETH 191 

covered with continual clouds and sometimes such outrageous 
winds arose with lightnings and tempest, that the people were 
in great fear of present destruction. 

Monstrous sights that were seen within the Scottish kingdom 
that year were these: horses in Lothian being of singular beauty 
and swiftness did eat their own flesh, and would in no wise taste 
any other meat. In Angus there was a gentlewoman brought 
forth a child without eyes, nose, hand, or foot. There was a 
sparrow-hawk also strangled by an owl. . 

[Of King Malcolm, uncle of Duncan, who was slain by some of 
his nobles, 1034.] In this season were seen many wonders and 
strange sights in Albion. On Christmas Day there was an earth- 
quake, and a great rift of the earth made therewith in the midst 
of Sterling town, out of the which issued ... an abundant 
stream of water. ... In the summer the sea rose higher and 
flowed further into the land than ever it had been seen at any 
other time. On Midsummer Day, which is the feast of St. 
John Baptist, there was such a vehement frost that the corn 
and other fruits of the earth were blasted and killed so that 
thereupon followed a great dearth in all the country. 

8. Macbeth's Coronation and Duncan's Burial. {Mac- 
bethj II, iv.) 

Then having a company about him of such as he had made 
privy to his enterprise, Macbeth caused himself to be proclaimed 
king, and forthwith went unto Scone, where by common con- 
sent he received the investiture of the kingdom according to the 
accustomed manner. 

The body of Duncan was first conveyed unto Elgin, and 
there buried in kingly wise; but afterward it was removed 
and conveyed unto Colmekill, and there laid in a sepulture 
amongst his predecessors, in the year after the birth of 
our Saviour, 1040. 

9. The Flight of Duncan's Sons. {Macbeth^ II, iv.) 

Malcolm Canmore and Donald Bane, the sons of King Dun- 
can, for fear of their lives, which they might well know that 
Macbeth would seek to bring to an end for his more sure con- 
firmation in the estate {kingdom), fled into Cumberland, where 
Malcolm remained, till time that Saint Edward, the son of 
Ethelred, recovered the dominion of England from the Danish 
power, the which Edward received Malcolm by way of most 



192 APPENDIX I 

friendly entertainment; but Donald passed over into Ireland, 
where he was tenderly cherished by the king of that land. 

[Holinshed goes on with the first part of Macbeth's reign, 
describing his zeal against all forms of evil and oppression, and 
the just and beneficent laws enacted by him.] 

10. Macbeth's Remorse and Cruelty. (Macbeth^ III, iv, 
vi; IV, i.) 

But this was but a counterfeit zeal of equity shown by him, 
partly against his natural inclination to purchase {procure) 
thereby the favor of the people. 

Shortly after, he began to show what he was, instead of equity 
practising cruelty. For the prick of conscience, as it chanceth 
ever in tyrants, and such as attain to any estate by unright- 
eous means, caused him ever to fear, lest he should be served of 
the same cup as he had ministered to his predecessor. 

11. Banquo's Murder; Fleance's Escape. {Macbeth, 
III, iii.) 

The words also of the three weird sisters would not out of his 
mind, which, as they promised him the kingdom, so likewise 
did they promise it at the same time unto the posterity of 
Banquo. He willed therefore the same Banquo with l^is son 
named Fleance to come to a supper that he had prepared for 
them, which was indeed as he had devised, present death at the 
hands of certain murderers whom he hired to execute that deed, 
appointing them to meet with the same Banquo and his son 
without the palace, as they returned to their lodgings, and there 
to slay them, so that he would not have his house slandered, but 
that in time to come he might clear himself, if anything were 
laid to his charge upon any suspicion that might arise. 

It chanced yet by the benefit of the dark night that though 
the father was slain, the son yet, by the help of Almighty God 
reserving him to better fortune, escaped that danger; and after- 
ward having some inkling by the admonition of some friends 
which he had in the court how his life was sought no less than 
his father's, who was slain not by chance medley {fight), as by 
the handling of the matter Macbeth would have it to appear, 
but even upon a prepensed {premeditated) device, whereupon to 
avoid further peril he fled into Wales. 

[Here follows the descent of the house of Stuart from 
Fleance. In Wales Fleance became the father of a son Walter 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OF MACBETH 193 

by a princess of that country. Walter was brought up humbly, 
and being taunted as illegitimate, he killed his tormentor and 
fled to Scotland, where he prospered and became eventually 
lord Steward of Scotland, whose duty it was to receive the king's 
revenue. From this office he was known as Walter Steward, and 
his descendant Walter Steward, six generations later, married 
Margerie Bruce, daughter of King Robert Bruce. Their son 
was King Robert the Second, " the first of the Stewards {Stuarts) 
which ware (wore) the crown in Scotland. ''] 

12. Macbeth's Oppression and the Building of Dun- 
siNANE. {Macbeth, III, vi; IV, ii.) 

But to return to Macbeth ... ye shall understand that after 
the contrived slaughter of Banquo, nothing prospered with the 
foresaid Macbeth; for in manner every man began to doubt his 
own life, and durst unneth {scarcely) appear in the king's pres- 
ence; and even as there were many that stood in fear of him, 
so likewise stood he in fear of many, in such sort that he began 
to make them away, by one surmised {pretended) cavillation 
{accusation) or other, whom he thought most able to work him 
any displeasure. [He also found it convenient to enrich him- 
self by confiscation of the property of his victims.] 

Further, to the end he might the more cruelly oppress his 
subjects with all tyrannical wrongs, he builded a strong castle 
on the top of a high hill called Dunsinane, situated in Gowrie, 
ten miles from Perth. . . . This castle then being founded on 
the top of that high hill, put the realm to great charges before 
it was finished, for all the stuff necessary to the building could 
not be brought up without much toil and business. 

But Macbeth being once determined to have the work 
go forward, caused the Thanes of each shire within the 
realm to come and help toward that building, each man 
his course about. 

13. Macbeth's Quarrel with Macduff. {Macbeth, III, 
vi; IV, ii.) 

At the last, when the turn fell unto Macduff, Thane of Fife, 
to build his part, he sent workmen with all needful provision, 
and commanded them to shew such diligence in every behalf 
that no occasion might be given for the king to find fault with 
him, in that he came not himself as others had done, which he 
refused to do, for doubt lest the king bearing him, as he partly 



194 APPENDIX I 

understood, no great good will, would lay violent hands upon 
him, as he had done upon divers others. 

Shortly after, Macbeth coming to behold how the work went 
forward, and because he found not Macduff there, he was sore 
offended and said: '^ I perceive' that this man will never obey my 
commandments till he be ridden with a snaffle; but I shall pro- 
vide well enough for him/^ 

14. The Influence of Further Prophecies. (Machethy 
IV, i.) 

Neither could he afterward abide to look upon the said 
Macduff, either for that he thought his puissance over-great, 
either else for that he had learned of certain wizards, in whose 
words he put great confidence, for that the prophecy had hap- 
pened so right which the three fairies or weird sisters had de- 
clared unto him, how that he ought to take heed of Macduff, 
who in time to come should seek to destroy him. 

And surely hereupon had he put Macduff to death, but that 
a certain witch, whom he had in great trust, had told him that 
he never should be slain with {by) man born of any woman, nor 
vanquished till the wood of Birnam came to the castle of 
Dunsinane. 

By this prophecy Macbeth put all fear out of his heart, sup- 
posing he might do what he would, without any fear to be pun- 
ished for the same, for by the one prophecy he believed it was 
impossible for any man to vanquish him, and by the other 
impossible to slay him. This vain hope caused him to do many 
outrageous things, to the grievous oppression of his subjects. 

15. Macduff's Flight to England and the Murder of 
HIS Family. {Macbeth, IV, ii.) 

At length Macduff, to avoid peril of his life, purposed with 
himself to pass into England, to procure Malcolm Canmore to 
claim the crown of Scotland. But this was not so secretly de- 
vised by Macduff but that Macbeth had knowledge given him 
thereof; for kings, as is said, have sharp sight like unto lynx, 
and long ears like unto Midas. For Macbeth had in every 
nobleman's house, one sly fellow or other in fee with him, to 
reveal all that was said or done within the same, by which sleight 
{trick) he oppressed the most part of the nobles of his realm. 

Immediately then, being advertised {notified) whereabout 
Macduff went, he came hastily with a great power into Fife, 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OP MACBETH 195 

and forthwith besieged the castle where Macduff dwelt, trusting 
to have found him therein. 

They that kept the house, without any resistance, opened the 
gates and suffered him to enter, mistrusting no evil. But 
nevertheless Macbeth most cruelly caused the wife and children 
of Macduff with all other whom he found in that castle to be 
slain. Also he confiscated the, goods of Macduff, proclaimed 
him traitor, and confined {banished) him out of all the parts of 
his realm. But Macduff was already escaped out of danger, 
and gotten into England unto Malcolm Canmore, to try what 
purpose he might make by means of his support, to revenge 
the slaughter so cruelly executed on his wife, his children, 
and other friends. 

16. The Interview between Malcolm and Macduff. 
(Macbeth, IV, iii.) 

At his coming unto Malcolm, he declared into what great 
misery the estate of Scotland was brought by the detestable 
cruelties exercised by the tyrant Macbeth, having committed 
many horrible slaughters, both as well of nobles as commons, 
for the which he was hated right mortally of all his hege people. 
. . . Malcolm, hearing Macduff's words which he uttered in 
right lamentable sort, for mere compassion and very ruth 
(pity) that pierced his sorrowful heart, bewailing the miserable 
state of his country, he fetched a deep sigh which Macduff" 
perceiving, began to fall most earnestly in hand with him to 
enterprise (undertake) the delivering of the Scottish people 
out of the hands of so cruel and bloody a tyrant . . . which 
was an easy matter for him to bring to pass, considering 
not only the good title he had, but also the earnest desire 
of the people to have some occasion ministered whereby 
they might be revenged of those notable injuries which 
they daily sustained by the outrageous cruelty of Macbeth 's 
misgovernment. 

Though Malcolm was very sorrowful for the oppression of his 
countrymen the Scots in manner as Macduff had declared, yet 
doubting whether he were come as one that meant unfeignedly 
as he spake, or else as sent from Macbeth to betray him, he 
thought to have some further trial, and thereupon dissembling 
his mind at the first, he answered as followeth: 

'' I am truly right sorry for the misery chanced to my country 
of Scotland, but though I have never so great affection to re- 



196 APPENDIX I 

lieve the same, yet by reason of certain incurable vices, which 
reign in me, I am nothing meet thereto. First, such immoderate 
lust and voluptuous sensuality, the abominable fountain of all 
vices, followeth me, that if I were made king of Scots, I should 
seek to deflower young maids and matrons in such wise that 
mine intemperancy should be more importable {insupportable) 
unto you than the bloody tyranny of Macbeth now is.'' 

Hereunto Macduff answered: "This surely is a very evil fault, 
for many noble princes and kings have lost both lives and king- 
doms for the same; nevertheless there are women enough in 
Scotland, and therefore follow my counsel; make thyself king, 
and I shall convey the matter so wisely that thou shalt be so 
satisfied at thy pleasure in such secret wise that no man shall be 
aware thereof." 

Then said Malcolm, "I am the most avaricious creature on 
the earth, so that if I were king, I should seek so many ways to 
get lands and goods, that I would slay the most part of all the 
nobles of Scotland by surmised (pretended) accusations, to the 
end that I might enjoy their lands, goods, and possessions. 
. . . Therefore, . . . suffer me to remain where I am, lest if 
I attain to the regiment (ruling) of your realm, mine unquench- 
able avarice may prove such that ye would think the displeas- 
ures which now grieve you should seem easy in respect of the 
immeasurable outrage which might issue through my coming 
amongst you." 

Macduff to this made answer, " How it was a far worse fault 
than the other; for avarice is the root of all mischief, and for that 
crime the most part of our kings have been slain and brought to 
their final end. Yet notwithstanding, follow my counsel, and 
take upon thee the crown, there is gold and riches enough in 
Scotland to satisfy thy greedy desire." 

Then said Malcolm again, "I am furthermore inclined to 
dissimulation, ... so that I naturally rejoice in nothing so 
much as to betray and deceive such as put any trust or confi- 
dence in my words. Then sith (since) there is nothing that 
more becometh a prince than constancy, verity, truth, and jus- 
tice, with other laudable fellowship of those fair and noble virt- 
ues which are comprehended only in soothfastness (truth) j and 
that lying utterly overthroweth the same; you see how unable 
I am to govern any province or region; and therefore sith you 
have remedies to cloak and hide all the rest of my other vices, 
I pray you find shift to cloak this vice amongst the residue." 



HOLINSHED S STORY OF MACBETH 197 

Then said Macduff: "This yet is the worst of all, and there I 
leave thee, and therefore say, 'Oh ye unhappy, miserable 
Scottish men, which are thus scourged with so many and sundry 
calamities, each one above otherl Ye have one cursed and 
wicked tyrant that now reigneth over you, without any right 
or title, oppressing you with his most bloody cruelty. This 
other that hath the right to the crown is so replete with the in- 
constant behavior and manifest vices of Englishmen, that he is 
nothing worthy to enjoy it; for by his own confession he is not 
only avaricious, and given to insatiable lust, but so false a traitor 
withal that no trust is to be had unto any word he speaketh. 
Adieu, Scotland, for now I account myself a banished man 
forever, without comfort or consolation.'" And with these 
words the tears trickled down his cheeks abundantly. 

At last, when he was ready to depart, Malcolm took him by 
the sleeve, and said: "Be of good comfort, Macduff, for I have 
none of these vices before remembered, but have jested with thee 
in this manner only to prove thy mind . . . but the more slow 
I have shown myself to condescend (agree) to thy motion and re- 
quest, the more diligence shall I use in accomplishing the same.'' 

Incontinently (immediately) hereupon they embraced each 
other, and promising to be faithful the one to the other, they 
fell in consultation how they might best provide for all their 
business to bring the same to good effect. 

17. Edward the Confessor's Touching for the King's 
Evil. (Macbeth^ IV, iii.) 

[At this point Shakespeare uses suggestions from Holin- 
shed's Chronicle of England.] 

As hath been thought he (Edward the Confessor) was in- 
spired with the gift of prophecy, and also to have had the gift of 
healing infirmities and diseases. He used to help those that 
were vexed with the disease, commonly called the king's evil, 
and left that virtue as it were a portion of inheritance unto his 
successors the kings of this realm. 

18. The Rising Against Macbeth. (Macbeth, IV, iii 
V, ii.) 

Soon after Macduff, repairing to the borders of Scotland, ad- 
dressed his letters with secret dispatch unto the nobles of the 
realm, declaring how Malcolm was confederate with him to 
come hastily into Scotland to claim the crown, and therefore he 



198 APPENDIX I 

required them, sith he was right inheritor thereto, to assist him 
with their powers to recover the same out of the hands of the 
wrongful usurper. 

In the mean time Malcolm purchased such favor at King 
Edward's hands, that old Si ward, Earl of Northumberland, was 
appointed with ten thousand men to go with him into Scotland 
to support him in this enterprise for recovery of his right 
. . . After that Macbeth perceived his enemy's power to in- 
crease by such aid as came to them forth of England with his 
adversary Malcolm, he recoiled (retreated) back into Fife, there 
purposing to abide in camp fortified at the castle of Dunsinane, 
and to fight with his enemies if they meant to pursue him. 

[His friends advised him to compromise with Malcolm, or to 
fly to the Isles and trust to hiring soldiers], in whom he might 
better trust than in his own subjects, which stole daily from 
him; but he had such confidence in his prophecies that he be- 
lieved he should never be vanquished till Birnam Wood were 
brought to Dunsinane; nor yet to be slain with (by) any man 
that should be or was born of any woman. 

19. Malcolm's Stratagem. (Macbeth^ V, iv, v.) 

Malcolm, following hastily after Macbeth, came the night 
before the battle into Birnam Wood; and when his army had 
rested awhile there to refresh them, he commanded every man 
to get a bough of some tree or other of that wood in his hand, 
as big as he might bear, and to march forth therewith in such 
wise that on the next morrow they might come closely and 
without sight in this manner within view of his enemies. 

On the morrow when Macbeth beheld them coming in this 
sort, he first marvelled what the matter meant, but in the end 
remembered himself that the prophecy which he heard long 
before that time, of the coming of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane 
Castle, was likely to be now fulfilled. 

20. The Overthrow of Macbeth. {Macbeth, IV, vii, 
viii.) 

Nevertheless he brought his men in order of battle, and ex- 
horted them to do valiantly; howbeit his enemies had scarcely 
cast from them their boughs, when Macbeth, perceiving their 
numbers, betook him straight to flight, whom Macduff pur- 
sued with great hatred even till he came to Lumphanan, where 
Macbeth perceiving that Macduff was hard at his back, leaped 



HOLINSHED'S STORY OF MACBETH 199 

beside his horse, saying, ^^Thou traitor, what meaneth it that 
thou shouldest thus in vain follow me that am not appointed 
to be slain by any creature that is born of a woman; come on, 
therefore, and receive thy reward which thou hast deserved for 
thy pains.'' And therewithal he lifted up his sword, thinking 
so to have slain him. 

But Macduff quickly avoiding (dismounting) from his horse, 
yer (ere) he came at him, answered, with his naked sword in his 
hand, saying: '' It is true, Macbeth, and now shall thy insatiable 
cruelty have an end, for I am even he that thy wizards have 
told thee of, who was never born of my mother, but ripped out 
of her womb.'' Therewithal he stept unto him, and slew him 
in the place. Then, cutting his head from the shoulders, he set 
it upon a pole, and brought it unto Malcolm. This was the end 
of Macbeth, after he had reigned seventeen years over the 
Scottishmen. 

In the beginning of his reign he accomplished many worthy 
acts, right profitable to the commonwealth, as ye have heard, 
but afterward, by illusion of the devil, he defamed the same with 
most terrible cruelty. 

He was slain in the year of the incarnation, 1057, and in the 
sixteenth year of King Edward's reign over the Englishmen. 

21. Siward's Invasion of Scotland and the Death of 
HIS Son. (Macbethj V, ii, iv, vi, vii, viii.) 

[Shakespeare used also the following from Holinshed's Chron- 
icle of England.] 

About the thirteenth year of King Edward's reign, as some 
write, or rather about the nineteenth or twentieth year, as 
should appear by the Scottish writers, Siward, the noble Earl of 
Northumberland, with a great power (force) of horsemen, went 
into Scotland, and in battle put to flight Macbeth that had 
usurped the crown of Scotland, and, that done, placed Malcolm 
surnamed Canmore, the son of Duncan, sometime king of Scot- 
land, in the government of tha*t realm, who afterward slew Mac 
beth, and then reigned in quiet. ... 

It is recorded also, that in the foresaid battle, in which Earl 
Siward vanquished the Scots, one of Siward's sons chanced to 
be slain, whereof although the father had good cause to be 
sorrowful, yet, when he heard that he died of the wound which 
he had received in fighting stoutly in the forepart of his body, 
and that with his face toward the enemy, he greatly rejoiced 



200 APPENDIX I 

thereat, to hear that he died manfully. But here it is to be 
noted, that not now, but a little before, as Henry Hunt saith, 
that Earl Si ward went into Scotland himself in person, he sent 
his son with an army to conquer the land, whose hap (fortune) 
was there to be slain: and when his father heard the news, he 
demanded whether he received the wound whereof he died in 
the forepart of the body or in the hinder part; and when it was 
told him that he received it in the forepart, "I rejoice,'' saith 
he, " even with all my heart, for I would not wish either to my 
son nor to myself any other kind of death." 



APPENDIX II 

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS CHRONOLOGICALLY 
ARRANGED 

The date of composition of Shakespeare's works cannot be 
absolutely determined, but dates that are approximately cor- 
rect have been assigned for all his plays. The evidence by 
which the time of composition is established is: — (1) Evidence 
external to the play, such as the entry for printing in the Station- 
ers' Register, the date on the title-page of the earliest known 
edition, references to the play in other works of known date; 
(2) evidence both external and internal, such as references in 
the play to things contemporary of known date or sources 
used; (3) evidence internal, such as the character of the dramatic 
art and peculiarities of style. Under stylistic peculiarities is in- 
cluded the developing freedom Shakespeare shows throughout 
the progress of his work in his metrical expression. He moves 
gradually away from the frequent rimed Hues of his early 
plays to an almost pure blank verse in his later ones. He 
moves gradually away from the monotony of lines regularly 
ending with a pause (''end-stopped" lines) to a freer rhythmic 
movement in which the rhythm runs on into the following line 
("run-on" lines). In consequence of this freer metrical move- 
ment, the lines that in early plays end usually with words that 
have a heavy stress of the voice gradually change to lines which 
often end with words of little or no stress. The formal line of 
the English drama, the iambic pentameter (a five-accent line, 
the pattern foot of which is x 0, is more and more varied by 
the addition of unaccented (x) syllables, especially at the 
caesura and at the end of the line. 

From such evidence, the chronological order of the plays is 
determined. The following is the order assigned them by 
Dowden, Shakspere, pp. 56 /. Other scholars differ slightly 
In regard to the order and date here presented: 

201 



202 



CHRONOLOGY 



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INDEX TO NOTES 



Abbott, E. A., passim, see Bibliog- 
raphy 

absolute, 149 

abuse, 123 

Academy of Armory, The, 125, 132, 140 

access, 113 

accompt, 167 

accused, 162 

Acheron, 146 

act, first, 93; second, 121; third, 134; 
fourth, 151; fifth, 166 

action, rising, falling, 146 ~ 

actor's part, 123, 164 

adage, 119 

adder's fork, 152 

addition, 106, 137 

adhere, 119 

adjective for adverb, 131 

admired, 145 

advantage, 174 

/Eneid, 145, 152 

af eared, 106 

affeered, 161 

alarum, 96, 169 

alarum-bell, 130, 177 

alarumed, 123 

Aleppo, 102 

all, 139 

allegiance, 122 

all-thing, 135 

a-making, 143 

amazedly, 157 

an, 148 

angel, 179 

angerly, 146 

annoyance, 169 

anointed temple, 129 

anon, 95, 138, 142 

antic, 157 

apparitions, 156 

approve, 115 

Apuleius, Lucius, 156 

Arabia, 168 

argument, 130 

Armed Head, 156 

aroint, 102 

Arraignment and Trial of Witches, 145 

"aside," 110 

at a point, 163 



atmosphere, 110, 140, 151, 177 

attendant devils, 95 

audit, 117 

augurs, 145 

authorized, 143 

avaunt, 144 

avouch, 137 

a-weary, 177 

babe, 154 

Babees Book, 126 

baboon, 154 

baby, 145 

badged, 130 

baited, 180 

balls, 157 

bane, 174 

banquet, 110 

Banquo, 91, 119 

Barclay, Alexander, 176 

barefaced, 137 

bat, 152 

battle, 177 

be, 159 

bear-baiting, 178 

beard, 104, 175, 

Beelzebub, 127 

beguile, 114 

beldame, 146 

Bellenden, John, 101, 132, 147 

bellman, 124 

Bellona, 100 

benison, 133 

bestowed, 135 

bestride, 160 

better part, 179 

bill, 137 

Birnam, 156 

birthdom, 160 

black, 155 

"Black spirits," 155 

bladed, 155 

blanket of the dark, 113 

blaspheme, 162 

blasted heath, 101 

blind-worm, 153 

blood, 113, 145 

blood-boltered, 157 

bloody, 97, 118 



203 



204 



INDEX TO NOTES 



bloody child, 156 
bodements, 156 
.Boece, Hector, 147 
bond, 140 
boneless, 119 
borne in hand, 136 
bosom, 101 
bough, 174 
break, 119 
breeched, 130 
brightest, 161 
blinded, 151 
broad words, 149 
Browne, Sir Thomas, 153 
Browning, Robert, 131 
brows, 161 
bruited, 178 
business, 114, 117, 130 
but, 136 
butcher, 181 
buttress, 116 

cabined, 142 

Caesarian section, 179 

Caius, Johannes, 137 

caldron, 152 

candle, 176 

capital, 106 

captains, 99 

card, 103 

careless, 109 

casing, 142 

cast, 129 

cast the water, 173 

catalogue, 137 

cat i' the adage, 119 

catastrophe, 166 

cause of state, 135 

Cawdor, 99, 105 

censures, 174 

chair, 172 

chalice, 118 

chamberlains, 119 

champion, 136 

chanced, 108 

chaps, 98 

charm, 104 

charnel-houses, 144 

chastise, 112 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 123, 124 

chaudron, 154 

cheer, 142 

cherubin, 118 

child crowned, 156 

children, 164 

choppy, 104 

chops, 98 

choughs, 145 

chuck, 140 

Cicero, 145 

clear, 114, 118 

clearness, 138 

clept, 137 



climax, 143 

cling, 177 

clogs, 150 

cloistered, 140 

close, 139, 146, 167 

closet, 167 

cloudy, 149 

cock, 129 

coign, 116 

Coleridge, Samuel T., 127 

Colmekill, 132 

colors, 169 

combustion, 129 

**Come away," 147 

Comenius, 159 

commission, 108 

composition, 100 

compt, 117 

compunctious visitings, 113 

connneless, 161 

confused, 129 

confusion, 129, 147 

conjure, 155 

consequence, 171 

consort, 131 

constructions, unusual, 105, 108 109, 

179 
continent, 161 
convert, 165 
convey, 162 
convince, 119, 163 
copy, 140 
corner, 147 
corporal agent, 120 
counselled, 122 
countenance, 130 
counterfeit, 130 
couriers of the air, 118 
course, 126, 178 
coursed, 117 
court, 121 
cousin, 98, 106 
coz, 158 
crack, 99, 157 
cream-faced, 171 
crests, 179 
crickets, 125 
Cumberland, 109 
curtained sleep, 123 

dagger, 122 

dam, 165 

dareful, 175 

dear, 169 

death of thy soul, 171 

degrees, 142 

delicate, 116 

delinquents, 148 

demi-wolves, 137 

Demonology, 151 

De Quincey, Thomas, 127 

Description of Ireland^ 97 

desert, 144 



INDEX TO NOTES 



205 



desolate shade, 160 

devil, 106 

devil, painted, 126 

devil-porter, 128 

Dictionary of Music, 135 

died every day, 162 

dignity, 168 

direness, 176 

Discourse of Witchcraft, 112 

discovery, 174 

Discoverie of Witchcraft, 151 

dismal, 100, 147 

dispatch, 114 

dispute, 165 

disseat, 172 

distance, 37 

distempered, 170 

dollars, 101 

doom, 130 

do safe, 109 

double, 152 

doubt, 177 

drab, 154 

dragon, 153 

dramatis personae, 91 

drenched, 120 

drop, vaporous, 147 

dudgeon, 123 

due of birth, 149 

dues, 111 

Duncan, 91 

dunnest, 113 

Dunsinane, 156, 166 /., 169 

dusty death, 176 

earls, 181 
earnest, 106 
eaten on, 105 
eclipse, 154 
ecstasy, 163 
-ed, its force, 143 
Edward, 149 
egg, 160 
elves, 154 
'em, 125 

Enemy of Man, 136 
English Dags, 137 
enkindle, 106 
enow, 128, 159 
epicures, 171 
equivocator, 128 
•equivocation, 177 
estate, 109, 177 
eternal jewel, 136 
eterne, 140 

ethical dative, 121, 149 
even, 142, 181 
event, 174 
exeunt, 96 
extend, 143 

fact, 148 
faculties, 118 



fair is foul, 95, 104, 114 

fairies, 154 

faith-breach, 170 

fantastical. 104, 107 

farmer, 128 

farrow, 155 

fate, 130 

father, 131 

fears, 107 

fee-grief, 164 

fell, 175 

fellow, 129 

fenny, 152 

fie, 167 

field, 167 

Fife, 99 

file, 137 

filed, 136 

fillet, 152 

filthy, 96 

first of manhood, 170 

firstlings, 158 

fit, 142, 158 

flaws, 143 

Fleance, 91 

flighty purpose, 158 

flourish, 108 

flout, 99 

flowers, 163 

foisons, 162 

foot of motion, 131 

forced, 175 

frailties, 131 

frame of things, 139 

franchised, 122 

free, 149 

frets, 176 

frieze, 116 

front, 165 

fry, 160 

fume, 120 

function, 107 

furbished, 99 ^ 

Furness, Horace, 124 

gall, 113 

gallowglasses, 97 

Garnet, Henry, 128 

genius, 136 

gentlewoman, 166 

Gerarde, John, 153 

germins, 155 

Gesta Romanorum, 167 

get, 105 

ghost of Banquo, 143 

giant's robe, 170 

gibbet, 155 

gild, 126 

gin, 159 

'gins, 98 

gives way to, 122 

Glamis, 104 

glass, 157 



206 



INDEX TO NOTES 



God's soldier, 180 

Golden Ass, 156 

golden round, 112 

Golgotha, 99 

goose, 128 

gorgon, 129 

Gorton, 158, 169 

gospelled, 137 

go to, 168 

gouts, 123 

grace, 105, 147, 161, 181 

graced, 143 

graces, 117 

grafted, 161 

grandam, 144 

Graymalkin, 95 

Groome, F. H., 101, 111, 156 

grooms, 125 

Grove, 135 

guise, 167 

gulf, 153 

hair, 107 

Hakluyt, Richard, 102, 154 

Hall, 131 

hand of God, 131 

hangman, 125 

harbinger, 110, 178 

hardy, 97 

harness, 177 

harped, 156 

harpier, 152 

Harting, 158 

hautboys, 115 

having, 105 

head, 156 

heart, white, 127 

heath, 95 

heavy summons, 121 

Hecate, 92, 123, 154 

heat-oppressed, 122 

hedge-pig, 152 

hell-broth, 153 

hell-kite, 165 

hell-gate, 127 

hell-hound, 179 

hemlock, 153 

Herbal, 153 

here-approach, 163 

here-remain, 163 

hermits, 117 

Heywood, John, 119 

Higden, Ralph, 144 

him, for he. 180 

his, for its, 116, 139 

History of the Principal Birds, 115 

hold, 113, 149, 180 

holily, 168 

Holinshed, passim 

Holme, Randle, 125, 132, 140 

holp, 117 

Holy King, 149 

home, 106 



homely, 159 
honor, 143 
hoodwink, 162 
Horace, 153 
horse, 157 
hose, 128 
host, 117 
housekeeper, 137 
howl, 160 
howlet, 153 
humor, 126 
hums, 149 
hurlyburly, 95 
husbandry, 121 
Hyrcan, 144 

ignorant present, 114 

'ild, 116 

illness. 111 

images, 105, 106 

imperfect, 105 

imperial charge, 161 

impress, 156 

Inchcolm, 100 

inform, 112, 123 

inhabit, 144 

initiate, 146 

lona, 132 

insane root, 105 

instruments, 106, 137, 165 

interdiction, 162 

interim, 108 

intermission, 165 

intrenchant, 179 

invention, 135 

Inverness, 109, 110, 115 

— ion, its scansion, 98 

irony, dramatic, 109, 125, 135, 157 

James, King, 151 

Janua, 159 

jealousies, 161 ^ 

Jew, 153 

Johnson, Samuel, 96, 100, 116 

Jonson, Ben, 147 

Journey to the Western Islaitds, A, 96, 

100, 116 
joyful trouble, 129 
judgment, 118 
juggling, 179 
jump, 118 
jutty, 115 

kerns, 97, 178 

king-becoming, 162 

Kings, 157 

king's evil, 163 

kites, 144 

knell, 124 

Knocking on the Gate in '* Macbeth" 

On the, 127 
knolled, 180 



INDEX TO NOTES 



207 



lack, 148 

Lady Macbeth. 112. 115. 117. 118. 119, 

124. 139 
Lady of the Lake, 154 
landscape, 141 
lapped, 100 
large, 142 
largess, 122 
latch, 164 
lated, 141 
lavish, 100 
lease, 157 
leavy, 177 
lees, 130 
Lennox, 91 
levy, 139 
liege, 108 
life to come, 118 
like, 132 
lily-livered, 171 
limbec, 120 
lime, 159 
limited, 129 
line, 106 

linguistic growth, 128 
list, 136 
lives, 179 
lizard, 153 
locks, 155 
lodged, 155 
loon, 171 
Lucan, 147 
luxurious, 161 

Macbeth, 91, 107, 110, 111, 117, 122, 
123, 124, 126, 139, 173, 176, 178 
Macdonwald, 97 
Macduff, 91, 158, 179 
maggot-pies, 145 
malady 163 
Malcolm, 91 
malice domestic, 139 
manly readiness, 131 
mansionry, 115 
marrowless, 144 
marry, 148 
marshal, 123 
martlet, 115 
Masque of Queens, 147 
master, 102 
mated, 169 
maw, 153 
may 138 
measure, 142 
memorize, 99 
mere, 163 

Metamorphoses, 153 
metaphysical, 112 
methought, 126 
Middleton, Thomas, 148, 155 
milk. 111, 162 
mind diseased, 123 
minion, 98 



ministers, 113, 181 
minutely, 170 
mischief, 113 
missives. 111 
modern, 163 
moe, 172 
monkey, 159 
monsters, painted, 180 
more and less, 174 
mortality, 130 
mortified, 169 
mould, 107 

Moulton, Richard G., 107 
mouth-honor, 172 
move, 158 
multitudinous, 127 
mummy, 153 
munched, 101 
murderer, the third, 141 
must, 164 
my lord, 139, 176 

named, 132 

napkins, 128 

natural touch, 158 

naught, 165 

nave, 98 

near'st, 137 

Neptune, 126 

newest, 97 

News from Scotland, 152, 155 

newt, 152 

nice, 163 

night-gown, 127 

night-shriek, 175 

nimbly, 115 

noise, 157 

nonpareil, 142 

Northumberland, 149 

Norways', 100 

note of expectation, 141 

oblivious, 173 

obscure bird, 129 

of, 97 

offices, 122 

old, 127 

on, 168 

one, 181 

one red, 127 

only, 109, 148 

oracles, 134 

order, 145, 177 

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, 101 

or ere, 163 

Ornithology of Shakespeare, 158 

out, 164 

outward, 175 

overcome, 145 

Ovid, 153 

owe, 105, 108, 145 

owl, 124 



208 



INDEX TO NOTES 



Paddock, 95 

painted devil, 126 

paled, 140 

pale-hearted, 156 

pall, 113 

parted, 181 

partner, 104, 107, 111 

past-participial forms, 103. 108. 117. 

129, 160. 175 
patch, 171 
patter, 179 
Peacham, Henry, 128 
peak, 103 
pearl, 181 
pendent bed, 116 
penthouse, 103 
perfect, 111, 142 
perfect spy, 138 
Perkins, 112 
perseverance, 162 
pestered, 170 
Pharsalia, 147 
physic, 166, 173 
pilot's thumb, 103 
pine, 103 

Pitcairn, Robert, 151, 152 
pleonasm, 99 
Pliny, 144 

plural of majesty, 142 
Plutarch, 136 
poisoned, 152 
Polychronicon, 141 
portable, 162 

portents, 126, 129, 131, 132 
Porter scene, 127 
ports, 103 
post, 106 
possets, 125 
posters, 104 
power, 164 

power of transportation, 96 
Prayer Book, 161, 168 
present, 101 
presently, 163 
pretence, 131 
pricking, 155 
primrose way, 128 
pride of place, 132 
Principal Navigations, The, 102 
prithee. 119, 141. 143 
probation, 136 
producing, 181 
professes, 178 
profound, 147 
prologue, 107 
proof, 100 
protest, 144 
Proverbs, 119 
provided for, 114 
pui:ge, 170 
purveyor, 117 
push, 172 
put on, 165 
pyramids, 155 



quoth, 102 
quarrel, 97, 162, 163 
quarry, 164 
quarters, 103 
quell, 120 
question, 131 

rancors, 136 
rat, 102 
ravelled, 126 
raven, 112 
ravined, 153 
ravin up, 132 
rawness, 161 
raze, 173 

receipt of reason, 120 
recorded time, 176 
relations, 145 
relative omitted, 111 
relish, 162 
remembrancer. 143 
remorse, 113 
rendered, 178 
report. 111 
resolve, 138 
rhinoceros, 144 
rhubarb, 173 
Rich, Barnabie. 97 
ripped, 179 
Roman fool, 179 
ronyon, 102 
rooks, 145 
rooky, 140 
Ross, 91 
rubs, 138 
rugged, 139, 144 
rump-fed, 102 

sag, 171 

Saint Colme's Inch, 100 

saucy, 142, 146 

sceptre, 136, 157 

Scone, 132 

scorched, 139 

scorpions, 140 

Scot, Reginald, 104, 152, 154, 155 

Scott, Sir Walter, 118, 154 

sear, 172 

seated, 107 

secret, 155 

security, 147 

seeling, 140 

self, 181 

self-abuse, 146 

self -comparisons, 100 

senna, 173 

sennet, 135 

se'nnights, 103 

sensible, 122 

sergeant, 96 

setting, 174 

sewer, 117 

shadow, 174, 176 

shag-haired, 159 



INDEX TO NOTES 



209 



shall, 143 

shard-borne, 140 

shift away, 131 

shine. 134 

shoal, 118 

shook hands, 98 

shoughs, 137 

should, 99, 149, 176, 177 

show, 104. 157, 179 

shut up, 122 

Sidney, Sir PhiUp, 126 

sieve, 102 

sightless substances, 113 

sight of nobleness, 109 

Sinel, 105 

single, 117 

single state, 107 

sirrah, 135 

Siward, 91, 169; Young Siward, 92 

skipping, 98 

skirr, 172 

slab, 154 

slaughterous, 175 

slave, 98, 141 

sleave, 126 

sleek o'er, 139 

sleep, 126 

■ileights, 147 

slumbering agitation, 167 

.smack, 99 

^mell of blood, 168 

soldier's debt, 180 

sole, 160 

solemn, 135 

soliciting, 107 

something, 138 

sooth, 99, 177 

sovereignty, 132 

sovereign flower, 170 

speak, 163 

speculation, 144 

speculative, 175 

speed, 112 

spirits, 138 

s— plural, 108, 124, 140 

spongy, 120 

spot, 167 

sprites, 130, 147, 157 

staff, 173 

stage, 117, 131 

stage allusions, 107, 176 

start, 157 

state, 142 

stem'st good-night, 125 

sticking, 170 

sticking place, 119 

still, 118, 135 

St. Margaret, 162 

stones, 124, 145, 178 

strange, 107 

strides, 124 

strike beside, 178 

studied, 108 

style, 129 



suborned, 132 

sudden, 161 

summer-seeming, 162 

supernatural, 93 

supped full, 176 

supper, 135 

surcease, 118 

surfeited, 125 

Survey of Scotland, 111, 156 

sway, 171 

sweaten, 155 

sweltered, 152 

Sweno, 100 

syllable, 160 

taint, 171 

take, 124 

tale, 106 

Tarquin, 123 

Tartar, 154 

teems, 164 

thane 99 

that, 100, 118, 162, 164, 165 

thee, f9r thou, 112 

thee without, 142 

the which, 180 

thickens, 140 

this three mile, 177 

thou, 97 

thrall, 148 

three, 95 

thrice, 104 

thunder, 94 

"Tiger," 102 

tiger, Hyrcan, 144 

titles, 158 

toad, 152 

to friend, 160 

to-morrow, 176 

top, 161 

Topographical Dictionary, 158, 169 

torches, 115 

torture, 139 

towering, 132 

toys, 130 

trace, 158 

trains, 163 

trammel, 118 

transpose, 161 

treatise, 175 

trees, 145 

trenched, 142 

trifled, 131 

trumpet, 130 

Turk, 154 

"turn," 134 

Turner, 115 

twain, 135 

tyranny, 161 

tyrant, 149 

un rough, 170 
unseamed, 98 
uproar, 162 



no 



INDEX TO NOTES 



Uvn-Burial, 153 
utterance, 136 

vantage, 99, 106, 116 

vault, 130 

vaulting ambition, 119 

Vergil, 145, 152 

vessel, 136 

vizards, 140 

voice, 126 

want, 148 
wassail, 119 
watch, 123 
water-rugs, 137 
way of life, 172 
wayward, 146 
weal, 144, 170 
weird, 103, 122 
well, 169 
were, 165 
Western Isles, 97 
what, 161, 178 
wheel of fortune, 159 
whereabout, 124 



whey-face, 171 

which, 98, 168; the, 135 

while, 135 

whiles. 111, 179 

who, absolute use, 106, 149; for 

whom, 138, 163 
wind, 102 
wink, 109 
wish to, 180 
Witch, The, 148, 155 
witchcraft, 101, 102, 103, 151 
witches, 94 
withered, 104 
withered murder, 123 
within, 96 
witnessed, 164 
wooingly, 115 
worm, 142 
would. 111, 136 
wrack, 103, 177 
wren, 158 

ye, 104 
yesty, 155 
yew, 153 



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